Tag: Mexico City Mexico

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Crocodiles Shares Noisy and Swaggering “Time Is Wasting Me”

Crocodiles‘ Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell have had a nearly 30 year history together: After initially become 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 by a local Mexican restaurant in their native San Diego.

As their mutual friend Russell Cash put it in a previous band bio, a young Welchez watched in awe as a teenage Rowell clambered up a confused family’s table and proceeded to bash the living hell out of his cheap guitar. When his set was through, Charlie melted into he crowd and found himself awestruck as the young Welchez took the stage and proceeded to shriek, croon, howl and spit his way through his own band’s allotted 20 minutes.

When the show ended, the pair found each other, expressed their mutual admiration, and over a shared Coke agreed to dissolve their respective bands and work together.

After a few false starts, the duo found their footing professionally with noise punk outfit The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. They spent five years crisscrossing the country, playing every dump that would let them play, while building a cult following. They met and inspired other like-minded freaks — and occasionally, they’d get beaten up by feral rednecks. Eventually the band imploded in a crowd of poverty, frustration and addiction. But Welchez and Rowell kept their partnership going.

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

18 years later, Welchez and Rowell have proven to be restlessly creative and endlessly shape-shifting bouncing between garage rock, psych punk, noise pop, art gaze and more. They’re relocated multiple times with stints residing in San Diego, New York, Paris, Mexico City, London, and Los Angeles. But a few a couple of things have remained: They’ve continued to tour incessantly, bringing their unique brand of rock to fans in almost every corner of the globe. And they’ve never wavered on their teenaged mission to help achieve other escape a life of drudgery, boredom and expectation through music, art, friendship, and of course, adventure.  

The duo’s forthcoming album ninth album, Greetings From Hell is slated for an April 24, 2026 release through Indianapolis and L.A.-based Invisible Hits. The album’s latest single, album opening track, the swaggering and noisy “Time Is Wasting Me” is pure, classic Crocodiles — forceful, crunchy riffs, the duo’s unerring knack for catchy, earworm-y hooks and choruses, thunderous drumming paired with Welchez’s punchy sneer. It’s a song meant to be played at ear drum shatteringly loud levels.

Directed by Sam Macon and edited by Eric Arsnow, the accompanying video is a deft mix of live concert photography, collage and animation that captures the swaggering and frenetic pulse at the core of the song.

The duo will be embarking on a short run of tour dates to support the new effort. Hopefully, they’ll be more dates soon. Perhaps an NYC date?

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sunset Images Shares Sprawling and Brooding “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Incio (Tommy)”

With the release of their debut album, 2021’s Traumatismo Nacional and 2024’s NADA/CERO/INFINITO EP, Sunset Images, led by Mexico City-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind Samuel Osorio has firmly established a layered soundscape of dissonance, cathartic release and emotional depth that draws from krautrock, shoegaze and punk. Thematically Traumatismo Nacional was a scathing indictment on violence, racism and misogyny while NADA/CERO/INFINITO explored loneliness, anger and desperation, laying bare the emotional devastation of modern life.

The project has built a reputation for intense live performances while sharing stages with the likes of Mogwai, Godflesh, Boris, The Raveonettes, Acid Mothers Temple, Gnod, HIDE, RAKTA, Vinnum Sabbathi and more.

Eventually, they caught the attention of Dedstrange Records, who signed the Mexican project and will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore album Oscilador on January 23, 2026. Reportedly, the album sonically is a reflection of the perpetual cycles that rules our world — birth, decay, chaos and resolution, fueled by the collision of fractured synths, pulsating vocals, primitive drum beats and feedback-drenched guitars. The result is a soundscape that’s hypnotic, disorientating and irresistible.

Oscilador‘s second and latest single “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere Al Incio (Tommy)” is a sprawling motorik dirge with a cinematic quality that’s one-part krautrock, one-part shoegaze, one-part noise featuring a throbbing, distortion pedaled bass line, bursts of swirling feedback-drenched guitar guitars, a relentless backbeat paired with Osorio’s hauntingly spectral vocal. The result is a song that’s intense yet with an almost fanatical attention to precision.

Sonically reminding me a bit of the likes of Yoo Doo Right JJUUJJUU and others, the song as Osorio explains explores “humanity’s self-destruction,” “conjuring visions of a world ravaged by toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This is a song about the abyss that awaits, how we cannot escape the passage of time & how it will ultimately consume us.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jupiter & Okwess Teams Up with Flavia Coehlo on a Globalist Banger

Jean-Pierre “Jupiter” Bokondji is a Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo-born and-based bandleader, songwriter and percussionist, who can trace the origins of his music career to his childhood: Bokondji’s grandmother was a traditional healer, who got introduced him to music by having him attend religious ceremonies and funerals, which he later would play percussion.

His father was a Congolese diplomat, who received a post at the Congolese embassy in East Berlin — and as a result, the family relocated to Germany. While in Germany Bokondji started his first band Der Neger, an act that meshed the Mongo music of his native Congo with the European rock of his German-born bandmates.

When his father’s post ended, the family returned to Kinshasa in the 1980s. Upon his family’s return, Bokondji traveled around the country listening to the music of the country’s different tribes, eventually developing and honing his own style and sound. In 1984, he formed a band called Bongofolk — and in 1990, he formed his best known and longest running band Okwess International, which currently features Staff Benda Bilili’s Montana (drums), Yendé (bass), Eric (guitar), Richard (guitar) and Blaise (vocals). 

In the years immediately after their formation, the members of Jupiter & Okwess toured across Africa, playing a crowd-pleasing mix of Afropop, traditional Congolese rhythms, funk and rock paired with strong sociopolitical messages that Bokondji has dubbed “bofenia rock.” But unfortunately, as they saw increased popularity, a bloody civil war broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some of the band’s members fled to Europe as a result of the war; however, Bokondji remained in Kinshasa. And as the war died down, the Congolese songwriter, bandleader and percussionist saw a resurgence of his popularity. 

Bokondji was featured in the 2006 documentary film Jupiter’s Dance. The film brought him to the attention of British producers and musicians: The following year Blur‘s and Gorillaz‘s Damon Albarn and Massive Attack‘s Robert Del Naja first visited Kinshasa. That first trip spurred various collaborations with Jupiter & Okwess opening for Blur and guesting on Albarn’s 2012 album Kinshasa One Two. Bokondji and his bandmates also joined the Africa Express tour and made the rounds of the global festival circuit, including sets at Glastonbury Festival and Way Out West. Adding to a rapidly growing international profile, the act released their then-long-awaited full-length debut, 2013’s Hotel Univers.

In 2013, Massive Attack remixed “Jupiter (Battle Box).” As a result of this breakout success, the band toured across the UK, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand and France.

The Kinshasa-based act’s sophomore effort, 2018’s Kin Sonic saw the band drawing from sounds outside of their homeland, incorporating elements of modern, contemporary music to the mix. The Afropop outfit supported the album with 180 dates across the globe, including performing in the Paris production of Abderrahmane Sissako and Damon Albarn’s opera Le Vol du Boli.

Their third album, 2021’s Na Kazonga saw the Congolese outfit meshing an array of sounds from across the African Diaspora including traditional African music, disco, jazz, New Orleans brass, samba and soul while still remaining committed to conscious, sociopolitical lyrics and a strong sense of purpose.

The acclaimed Congolese outfit’s fourth album, Ekoya is slated for a February 7, 2025 release through Airfono. The album represents a new chapter for the band, as the material sees the band blending their signature mix of soulful Congolese funk, rock and soukous with influences from Mexico and across Latin America, informed by cross-cultural encounters and drawing from the shared history of African people in two continents.

Ekoya was conceived in 2020 when the Congolese band were touring across South America, a tour shaped by the specter of lockdowns and interruptions. Once the tour was finished, the band was forced to pause in Mexico for a period of time, before returning home. For the band, it was a transformative experience, as they found themselves immersed in Latin American culture. “Latin America has influenced us a lot… but our music hasn’t changed, it has just been given a new dimension,” Bokondji says. “When we were there, we discovered things that pushed us to think differently. Because it’s like a continuation of Africa. There are people there who have African roots, Congolese roots – they are part of the story of Africa. They are part of us, and they are a part of our music.” 

Recorded in Mexico rather than the band’s hometown, the album explores themes of change and resilience, of Indigenous peoples’ issues and the joys and struggles of everyday life. The 12-song album features guest spots from Brazilian singer Flavia Coelho, Mexican Zapotec rapper Mare Advertencia and Congolese singer Soyi Nsele — and lyrics in eight different languages. The album sees the band as both proudly Congolese and profoundly global.

The band explains that when it came time to record the album, Mexico was a natural destination with the band recording material in studios in Guadalajara and Mexico City, while working with a series of producers including Mexican Institute of Sound’s Camilo Lara.

Ekoya’s latest single “Les Bons Comptes” is a collaboration with Brazilian vocalist Flavia Coelho that’s anchored around a driving soukous-meets Kinshasa funk rock groove, punchily delivered shouted call-and-response vocals and a soulful contribution from Coelho. While being a soulful and effortless mix of Africa and South America, the song is rooted in the conscious, sociopolitical charged lyrics and warm welcoming spirit the Congolese outfit is known for. But the song is also underpinned by a desire to be the connective tissue and soul of the global African Diaspora.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Share Breathtaking and Cinematic “Today Is The Day”

JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — will be releasing their long-awaited sixth album, Dream Talk on April 5, 2024 through the band’s own label Wrecking Light Records. 

The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound.”

The album features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaimed duo further mastering a sound and overall body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles: 

  • “Secret World,” which saw the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

  • Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second single “The Dream” featured a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic. Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.” 

  • “Crystal Blue,” a slow-burning and atmospheric torch song featuring twinkling percussion, softly padded drums and a bit of marimba, Murray’s smoky and yearning croon and a shimmering and expressive Hughes guitar solo. Seemingly channeling a handful of great 1980s ballads, “Crystal Blue” is about two lovers, separated by the sea, dreaming of their eventual reunion. Hours, days, nights and weeks go by with the waves and the moonlight being the only companions to their longing and heartache. 

Written in Woodstock, Dream Talk‘s fourth and latest single “Today Is The Day” is anchored around a breathtakingly lush, cinematic arrangement featuring acoustic guitar, bass, reverb-soaked electric and an orchestral coda. Evoking the subtle hints of warmth in Spring’s earliest days, “Today Is The Day” reminds the listener of two essential facts: change is one of life’s few constants and that you need to live for today.

“You have all sorts of connections with songs you write but some seem to connect on a deeper level for whatever reason and this song does that for us. I think there were two sides to this song, one is that we wanted to say something about seizing the moment as life is precious and tomorrow is not promised and that is echoed in the chorus, ‘Today is the Day’ etc.  On the other side there’s this connection to nature and that’s peppered throughout the lyrics as well.  Yeats once said, ‘The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.’  I really believe that and when we were out filming this video by all the trees and birds and just hearing that acoustic guitar out there, it felt ancient and old and it was something I had to be reminded of.  Sitting there by the brook I thought maybe I’ll be lucky and catch a glimpse of something deeper.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Chicago’s The Color of Cyan Shares Cinematic and Shoegazey “Egress”

Chicago-based post rock/post-metal outfit The Color of Cyan — Henry Cole (drums), Jorge Santana (bass) and Eduardo Cintron (guitar) — originally formed in San Juan, Puerto Rico back in 2000. The band re-emerged during the height of the pandemic as a solely instrumental project that created intricate soundscapes with aggressive guitar.

The band wrote and recorded their full-length debut, 2021’s Agape, an album that featured multi-layered material that patiently built in pressure and impact.

The act’s sophomore album, Egress, which was recorded between Puerto Rico, Chicago and Mexico City will reportedly see the band blurring the boundaries of a sound that feature elements of post metal, post rock and neo-classical while introspectively exploring emotion through delicate layering,. “Our music arrangements are purposely in constant motion, guided by emotions, impossible to replicate perfectly, like waves in the sea. Nothing is ever the same as before,” the Chicago-based outfit explains.

Egress‘ latest single, album title track “Egress” is a brooding and cinematic composition that brings Collapse Under The Empire and others to mind — but while having a painterly, A Storm in Heaven-like textured quality. “‘Egress’ embodies the pursuit of happiness, no matter the obstacles in life,” the band explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Demons My Friends Share an Expansive Face-Melting Ripper

Currently split between Austin and Mexico City, Demons My Friends features members of Washington, DC-based outfit Fellowcraft and well-regarded Mexico City-based rock band QBO, and can trace their origins to an impromptu recording session at last year’s SXSW. Conceptually, the trio explore the inner journey its members have been on since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, confronting inner demons and battling anxiety, depression, self-doubt and rage while teaching themselves how to turn these demons into their “friends.”

The Mexican-American trio’s Jeff Henson-produced and mixed Demons Seem To Gather is slated for a September 8, 2023 release through Gravitoyd Heavy Music. Sonically seeming to draw from the likes of Monolord, King Buffalo, All Them Witches, Soundgarden, Baroness and a lengthy list of others, the trio’s full-length debut is reportedly features material that pairs drop-tuned grunge riffs, doom song structures, soaring melodies, groove-driven rhythms and psychedelic harmonies — but while rooted in the band’s musicianship.

Demons Seem To Gather‘s latest single “Make Them Pay” is built around a face-melting mix of sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, Black Sabbath-meets-Soundgarden/Alice in Chains-like solos and crooned vocals with an expansive song structure. While touching upon some familiar styles, “Make Them Pay” is powered by dexterous and impassioned musicianship and earnest purpose.

Directed by Lu Salinas, the accompanying video for “Make Them Pay” was generated using AI, and it captures a fiery hellscape that sort of resembles the one we’re marching lockstep into right now.

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: La Femme Shares Breezy “No Pasa Nada”

Paris-based JOVM mainstays La Femme have spent quite a bit time touring across Latin American and Spain. Those experienced helped inspired the band’s first song entirely in Spanish, “Le Jardin,” which appeared on their third album, last year’s Paradigmes.

“Le Jardin” led the band down the path to write Teatro Lucido. Deriving its name from a mythic theater, where the band has played many times while touring in Mexico, the album, which is slated for a Friday release will be their first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in Spanish. Teatro Lucido will also be the first of a planned thematic series of albums that the band has dubbed Collection Odyssèe.

Teatro Lucido is informed by their adventures in Seville, Granada, Madrid, Mexico City, Cuautepec, Padul — all of which hold important places in their hearts, because they had a ton of laughs, joys, tears and disappointments in each. The album also reportedly draws from a number of different inspirations including Spain’s Semana Santa — or holy week; pasodoble, reggaeton, Brazilian and Andalusian rhythms, classical guitars and 80s Movida among others. Much like their previous releases, the members of French JOVM mainstays wrote, composed and produced the album entirely by themselves, while inviting numerous female vocalists to participate in the process. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release on Friday, I’ve managed to write about two of the album’s singles:

“Sacatela,” a breezy, Tropicalia-like take on psych pop centered around an infectious, call-and-response vocal-led hook paired shuffling Latin rhythms and lyrics sung entirely in Spanish. 

“Y Tu Te Vas,” a track centered around cinematic, flamenco-inspired guitars and a tweeter and woofer rocking reggaeton beat that might bring Rosalía, Bad Bunny, and others to mind. The song features a sultry, Shakira-like turn from Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Tatiana Hazel. “Tatiana is an artist living in Los Angeles where I recorded the track in 2019,” La Femme’s Marlon Magnée says of their collaboration. ‘Y Tu Te Vas’ is one of the more powerful tracks voice-wise on the album. Tatiana brings the track to another dimension, she really is one of the new artists to follow on the American scene.”

Written when La Femme’s Sacha Got was living at Adios Amores’ Iman Amar’s place in Grenada Spain, Teatro Lucida’s third and latest single “No Pasa Nada” centered around ’60s and ’70s Brazilian rhythms, strummed guitar, woozy synths and ethereal vocals from Amar. But the song’s seemingly breezy and easygoing nature is superficial; the song’s lyrics focus something far more menacing and fucked up — a night out in a foreign country gone horribly wrong.

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “No Pasa Nada” was shot in the streets of Grenada, Spain — and features the band partying and having a wild night on the town that includes the familiar drunken, late night, zombie lurch thought town and the collapse into a queasy heap of limbs. The video was innspired by a night on the town the band had back in 2018, which ended with the members of the band blacking out. It was the kind of night that ends in the morning at 8AM when kids are going to school,” La Femme’s Sacha Got says.That kind of night where you drink to forget, and you end up forgetting what you drank… or you just don’t want to remember. And when you wake you’re like ‘No problem, nothing happened!’”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Share Deliriously Creepy Visaul for Sultry “Y Tu Te Vas”

Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays  La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1. 

After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.” 

2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to their unique take on surf rock and psych pop. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award. 

Building upon a rapidly growing national and international profile, La Femme’s sophomore album, 2016’s Mystére to praise by Sound Opinions, The Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, AllMusic, BrooklynVegan and a lengthy list of others. 

The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of this year, you’d recall that it’s been a very busy on for the Paris-based outfit: In April, La Femme released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that highlights the band’s humor and creativity while being primarily centered around Paradigmes‘ material. (You can watch it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0)

The also released an exclusive, vinyl Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Paradigmes, La Femme announced the release of a limited collection of NFTs made from the original frames used for the animated video for “Foutre le Bordel.” The NFTs were released by  by Ballad(r), an NFT launchpad for artists and institutions in the music industry. These unique digital works of art included a unique audio track made from stems of the original song and unlocked exclusive content and numerous real-life perks for each lucky NFT holder. 

During the JOVM mainstays’ time touring across Latin America and Spain, the band wrote their first song entirely in Spanish, “Le Jardin,” which appeared on the aforementioned Paradigmes. “Le Jardin” led the band down the path to write Teatro Lucido. Deriving its name from a mythic theater, where the band has played many times while touring in Mexico, the album, which is slated for a November 4, 2022 release will be their first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in Spanish. Teatro Lucido will also be the first of a planned thematic series of albums that the band calls Collection Odyssèe.

Teatro Lucido is informed by their adventures in Seville, Granada, Madrid, Mexico City, Cuautepec, Padul — all of which hold important places in their hearts, because they had a ton of laughs, joys, tears and disappointments in each. The album also reportedly draws from a number of different inspirations including Spain’s Semana Santa — or holy week; pasodoble, reggaeton, Brazilian and Andalusian rhythms, classical guitars and 80s Movida among others. Much like their previous releases, the members of French JOVM mainstays wrote, composed and produced the album entirely by themselves, while inviting numerous female vocalists to participate in the process. 

Just before the JOVM mainstays last North American tour, La Femme shared “Sacatela,” a breezy, Tropicalia-like take on psych pop centered around an infectious, call-and-response vocal-led hook, snuggling Latin rhythms and lyrics sung entirely in Spanish. 

The album’s second and latest single “Y Tu Te Vas” is centered around cinematic, flamenco-inspired guitars and a tweeter and woofer rocking reggaeton beat that might bring Rosalía, Bad Bunny, and others to mind. The song features a sultry, Shakira-like turn from Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Tatiana Hazel. 

“Tatiana is an artist living in Los Angeles where I recorded the track in 2019,” La Femme’s Marlon Magnée says of their collaboration. ‘Y Tu Te Vas’ is one of the more powerful tracks voice-wise on the album. Tatiana brings the track to another dimension, she really is one of the new artists to follow on the American scene.”

Directed by JF Julian and the members of La Femme, the accompanying video for “Y Tu Te Vas” continues a remarkable run of gorgeous, cinematically shot visuals that display their unique sense of style and fashion, along with their eccentric and deliriously campy sense of humor. Fittingly, the new videos is full of creepy season motifs — we see Tatiana Hazel dressed as though she were in mourning in a dense fog-filled forest; Hazel with two flamenco styled guitarists sitting in front of a roaring fireplace and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Femme Share a Hilarious and Summery Visual for Breezy “Sacatela”

Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays  La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to completely hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with only $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1. 

After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.” 

2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to the mix. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award. Building upon a rapidly growing national and international profile, La Femme’s sophomore album, 2016’s Mystére to praise by Sound Opinions, The Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, AllMusic, BrooklynVegan and a lengthy list of others. 

The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And over the course of 2021, I managed to write about five of the album’s nine — that’s right, nine! — released singles: 

  • “Cool Colorado,” a coolly bombastic single that seemed indebted to Scott Walker and Ennio Morricone soundtracks while being an “ode to the San Francisco of the 70s — and to Colorado, the first American state to legalize cannabis. 
  • Disconnexion,” a surreal what-the-fuck fever dream centered around pulsating Giorgio Moroder-like motorik grooves, a fiery banjo solo, atmospheric electronics, twinkling synth arpeggios, a philosophic soliloquy delivered in a dry, academic French and operatic caterwauling. 
  • “Foutre le Bordel,” a breakneck freak out that meshed Freedom of Choice-era DEVO and Giorgio Moroder with ’77 punk rock nihilism. 
  • “Le Jardin,” an achingly sad lullaby written and sung in Spanish — the band’s first song in Spanish. Inspired by a trip to Spain that the band took a few years ago, the song as the band explains is a kind of an old-school slow dance, which underlines how fragile and random fate is. 
  • “Pasadena,” a slow-burning, woozy ballad that sounds — and feels — like a narcotic-induced haze. Written as an informal response and continuation of the story told in “Septembre,” off the band’s sophomore album, “Pasadena” features the main character of “Septembre” as a teenager. And as a result, the song is about budding romances — primarily their seemingly carefree nature at the time, their eventual difficulties and confusions, and the weight of peer pressure. 

So far, 2022 has been very busy for the Paris-based JOVM mainstays: Back in April, La Femme released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that highlights the band’s humor and creativity while being primarily centered around Paradigmes‘ material. (You can watch it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0)

The also released an exclusive, vinyl Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. Along with the Record Store Day exclusive vinyl release of Paradigmes: suppléments, the band released yet another single off Paradigmes, the album closing track “Tu T’en Lasses,” a slow-burning and atmospheric fever dream, centered around skittering beats, glistening synths and a distorted yet mournful horn solo paired with dreamily delivered vocals.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Paradigmes, La Femme announced the release of a limited collection of NFTs made from the original frames used for the animated video for “Foutre le Bordel.” The NFTs were released by  by Ballad(r), an NFT launchpad for artists and institutions in the music industry. These unique digital works of art included a unique audio track made from stems of the original song and unlocked exclusive content and numerous real-life perks for each lucky NFT holder.

During the JOVM mainstays’ time touring across Latin America and Spain, the band wrote their first song entirely in Spanish, “Le Jardin,” which appeared on the aforementioned Paradigmes. “Le Jardin” led the band down the path to write Teatro Lucido. Deriving its name from a mythic theater, where the band has played many times while touring in Mexico, the album, which is slated for a November 4, 2022 release will be their first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in Spanish. Teatro Lucido will also be the first of a planned thematic series of albums that the band calls Collection Odyssèe.

The album is informed by their adventures in Seville, Granada, Madrid, Mexico City, Cuautepec, Padul — all of which hold important places in their hearts, because they had a ton of laughs, joys, tears and disappointments in each. The album also reportedly draws from a number of different inspirations including Spain’s Semana Santa — or holy week; pasodoble, reggaeton, Brazilian and Andalusian rhythms., classical guitars and 80s Movida among others. Much like their previous releases, the members of French JOVM mainstays wrote, composed and produced the album entirely by themselves, while inviting numerous female vocalists to participate in the process.

Now, as you may recall just before the JOVM mainstays last North American tour, La Femme shared “Sacatela.” Inspired by their tours across South American and Spain, “Sacatela” is a Tropicalia-take on psych pop featuring shuffling Latin rhythms and lyrics sung entirely in Spanish paired with an infectious call-and-response vocal-led hook.

Directed by Ilan Zerrouki and starring Itziar Guardamino Sanchez, Marlon Magnée, Sacha Got, Ysé Grospiron, Samantha Quealy, Sam Lefèvre, Daniel Barda and Francesco Mocchia Di Coggiola, the accompanying visual for “Sacatela” was shot in Nice, France and is a breezy, stylish blast of seemingly carefree, easy-going summer, full of frolicking at the beach, rooftop parties and the like. But things quickly go hilariously wrong with some of the video’s cast getting violently ill. As the band explains the video is about unacknowledged desires and un-pursued dreams, which is also called “sacatelaism.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Founded back in 2020 by Little Jesus bassist Carlos Medina, the Mexico City-based psych pop act Petite Aime expanded into a full-fledged band when Aline Terrein (vocals), Isabel Dosal (vocals), Santiago Fernández (bass) and Jacobo Velazquez (guitar) joined to write and record last year’s critically applauded self-titled full-length debut.

Drawing from an eclectic array of influences including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Big Thief, Magic Potion, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Crumb, the self-titled album saw the Mexican psych pop outfit crafting an album’s worth of material that fluctuates between different genes and styles based on psych pop and psych rock. Lyrically and thematically, the album was an expression of the existential angst entered by the speech of the
“self” in an increasingly impersonal world, a world where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual continually blurs.

Building upon a growing profile, the members of Petite Aime released an EP of remixes of album title track “Elektro,” which featured contributions from Okey Dokey, BOYO, and Lucia Tacchetti.

The Mexican psych pop outfit’s newest single “Otra Vez” sees them pushing their sound in a much more experimental direction while preserving the melodic essence that won them international acclaim. Clocking in at a little under 6:30, “the slow-burning Otra Vez” is centered around an expansive song structure that features a lengthy introduction with an atmospheric and glistening synth arpeggios, explosive hi-hat driven rhythms, a sumptuous bass line paired with ethereal harmonies for the verse, a dreamier section with strummed acoustic guitar, followed by a lengthy coda featuring electronic blips and bloops and a funky, motorik groove. The song is an exercise in restraint and subtle repetition. But it’s also a little taste of what to expect from the band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album.

While being simultaneously mesmerizing and trippy, “Otra Vez,” as the band explains is a song that . . . “reminds us how exhausting trying to adjust reality to your exceptions can be. In it, a conversation between two people takes place, or perhaps it is an internal conversation, which has been revisited time and again. Thus, the very structure of the song alludes to that repetitive cycle in which one finds oneself until reaching a breaking point. There is no reason to talk about the same things over and over, if nothing changes and even less if there is no desire to change. The only thing left to do is to accept other people, oneself and the universe as they are.”

Petite Aime will be embarking on a Stateside tour this summer. The tour includes a handful of dates with both Wild Wild Wets and Hooveriii — and a handful of headlining dates including August 28, 2022 at Berlin Under A. As always, all tour dates are below.

Tour dates

8/3 – Casbah /Soda – San Diego, CA *

8/4 – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA *

8/5 – Amados – San Francisco, CA *

8/6 – The Holland Project – Reno, NV *

8/7 – Starlet Room – Sacramento, CA **

8/9 – Fixin’ To – Portland, OR

8/10 – The Shakedown – Bellingham, WA

8/12 – Substation x Freakout Presents – Seattle, WA 

8/13 – Neurolux – Boise, ID

8/15 – Vultures – Colorado Springs, CO **

8/16 – Lost Lake – Denver, CO

8/17 – miniBar – Kansas City, .MO

8/18 – Amsterdam – St. Paul, MN

8/21 – Landline Presents @ The Burl – Lexington, KY **

8/22 – The Blue Room @ Third Man – Nashville, TN **

8/23 – 529 Bar – Atlanta, GA

8/24 – El Rocko @ Dog Day Presents – Savannah, GA

8/25 – Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC

8/26 – Pie Shop – Washington, DC

8/27 – World Cafe – Philadelphia, PA 

8/28 – Berlin Under A – New York, NY 

* = w/ Wild Wild Wets

** = w/ Hooveriii

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Chicago’s Así Así Shares a Hypnotic New Single

Chicago-based indie outfit Así Así — Fernando de Buen (vocals, guitar), Ben Geissel (drums), Celeen Rusk (vocals, keys) and Sam Coplin (bass) — can trace their origins back to 2018, as the continuation of a previous project, El Mañana, which was originally founded in Mexico City before the band’s members relocated to Chicago. Whether as El Mañana or Así Así, the Chicago-based band is a part of the city’s growing Latin rock scene — and has played at a number of venues across the Chicago area. 

Así Así’s sound sees the quartet and blending elements of rock, dance and Latin with arrangements that feature acoustic and electronic drums, synths, guitars paired with propulsive grooves frequently create material that’s haunting yet upbeat and catchy. 

Their debut single “Carne Molida” was released back in 2020 and received coverage in Remezcla, Filter Mexico and Indie Rocks, as well as airplay on Mexico City’s Reactor, 105.75FM.

Recorded at Palisade Studios, the Chicago-based outfit’s Fernando de Buen and Marcus Reese co-produced album Mal Otras is slated for release later this year. Last month, I wrote about album single “Yo La Sé” is a dreamy and expansive track featuring a driving, motorik-like groove, glistening guitars, de Buen’s plaintive vocals and an uneasy bass outro. While the song evokes the sensation of waking up from an unpleasant and incredibly vivid dream, the song thematically focuses on a familiar sensation of all of us now — a deep-seated frustration over the seemingly never-ending stream of terrible news.

The Chicago-based quartet’s latest single “Me Quedo Ahí” is a trippy song heavily indebted to 70s and 80s psychedelic cumbia with hints of the indie rock that they band has been known for with the song featuring glistening keys, reverb-drenched guitars, a strutting bass line, and shuffling rhythms paired de Buen’s dreamy vocals and a glistening guitar solo. The end result is a song that may arguably be their trippiest yet most danceable song to date.