Tag: mp3s

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Smokey Brights in a Seattle-based indie rock band fronted by husband and wife duo Kim West (keys, vocals) and Ryan Devlin (guitar, vocals) and featuring Luke Logan (bass) and Nick Krivchenia (drums). Interestingly, West a barred attorney and Devlin, who has a background in booking, publishing and the punk rock scene met working at a pizzeria during the summers while they were both in college. Much of their material draws from the duo’s transition from friends to life partners, touring in a van across the Pacific Northwest and being in love in an uncertain and uneasy world.

Developing a reputation for explosive live shows centered round warm, harmony rich, arena rock-inspired anthems, the Seattle-based indie act have earned themselves a devoted fanbase across the US, the UK and the European Union. And building upon a growing profile, the band has played sets at SXSW, Bumbershoot Festival, Sasquatch! Festival, Off Beat Festival and Treefort Music Festival.

Their forthcoming Andy Park-produced third album I Love You But Damn is slated for a May 15, 2020 release through Freakout Records. The album’s material was tirelessly demoed int their basement studio then road-tested — before the band went into the studio to record it. Reportedly, the new album reportedly finds the Seattle-based band carefully walking a tightrope between gritty Pacific Northwest rock, 70s AM rock and hook-driven arena pop.  “72,” I Love You But Damn‘s first single is an infectious, swooning and hook-driven pop track centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, a sinuous bass line, a bluesy guitar line and West’s expressive vocals along with clangs and thumps meant to replicate a bus crowded with commuters. And while sounding like a seamless synthesis of Fleetwood Mac and Purple Rain and 1999-era Prince, the song as the band explains is a love song that takes place on a now-defunct bass line — the 72 — which used to run through North Seattle around the time West and Devlin started to date.

Interestingly, the song finds the duo re-imagining their romantic reunion taking place on the city bus, as they’re both returning home from their respective dismal and mundane day jobs. The song features West’s narrator working up the courage to ask her former lover to come over. As a result, the song manages to evoke an uneasy sense of nostalgia and hope of potential second chances towards love — or anything else for that matter.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Fake Shape is an emerging Hamilton Ontario-based indie quintet that formed back in 2018. Each of the band’s five musicians offer their own unique aesthetic into the mix — and as a result, their sound features elements of indie rock, pop, ambient electronica and others. Over the past few months, the band has been holed up at Hamilton’s Fort Rose Studios writing and recording material that would eventually comprise their forthcoming debut EP Night Swim.

“It’s Easy,” Night Swim‘s first single features an expansive song structure begins with an ambient and brooding intro before quickly morphing to swaggering prog rock and prog jazz-inspired pop centered around plaintive and expressive vocals, shimmering and atmospheric synths arpeggios, slashing guitars, a sinuous bass line and an infectious hook. And while recalling Radiohead and JOVM mainstays Bells Atlas and Milagres, the song drifts and effortlessly glides through contrasting mindsets and feelings, accurately capturing feelings of dread, unease and uncertainty with a psychologically precise attention to detail/

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Charlotta Perers is a Malmö, Sweden-based artist and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed and rising indie electro pop project Big Fox. Perers’ first two Big Fox albums — 2011’s self-titled debut and 2013’s Now — received widespread with material amassing over two million Spotify streams, as well as sync placements on Charmed, You Are The Worst and Catfish.

Initially slated for a May 2018 release, Perers’ Tom Malmros-produced third album See How the Light Falls was shelved a few weeks before its release when the rising Swedish artist received some news that at time derailed the album — and for some time, her career. “A few weeks before the albums was supposed to be released, I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” Perers recalls in press notes. “It all happened very quickly and it was almost like entering a parallel world with a different time scale, rules and priorities. It felt almost like being forced on to one of those ghost trains in a theme park, going in and out of tunnels and not knowing when or how or even if i would be able to get off.”

The entire process allowed a much deeper sense of perspective for the Malmo-based artist. “Life suddenly became very intense, very here and now — but that amplified positive experiences too. I realized how deeply our happiness is connected to our expectations,” Perers explains. “If I didn’t expect or demand things of life I could actually be quite happy just playing Yahtzee all day. But it felt good to know that the album was waiting for me on the other side. It was a reminder of something else, the someone I was outside the hospital.”      

18 months after her cancer diagnosis, Perers has fully recovered and has been “slowly reclaiming my life back,” as she says. Naturally, the added gestation period for the album has given the album’s material a deeper personal meaning and significance. “When I listen to it now I actually like the album even more,” she says. “I have some distance from it. When you’re in the middle of the process, it’s easy to get caught up in the details and not really hear the song anymore. Recently when I started listening to the album, after not listening to it for months, I even got this strange feeling of . . .have we really made this?” 

Sonically, the album’s material which weaves and bobs between dream pop ambience and mood and skillfully crafted songs further establishes the sound that won the Swedish artist acclaim: achingly tender and hauntingly beautiful songs centered around her expressive and airy voice and a textured production that’s both delicate and immersive. Interestingly, when Perers first started to work on the material that would comprise See How the Light Falls, she intuitively knew that the process couldn’t — and shouldn’t — be rushed. She had to allow the work to unravel at  a natural pace while finding a natural connection. “My experience of creativity is that I get this vague feeling of being pointed in a certain direction,” the acclaimed Malmo-based artist explains. “It rarely explains itself more than that. But I’ve learnt that if I give it time and attention then things slowly start to move and grow into something. It seems to run more smoothly if I manage to step back and let the process lead me instead of forcing it in a specific direction. Like with the lyrics, I can search for the right lyrics for a long time, even give up, and then some months later it’s as if the missing words find me rather than the other way around.”

As a result, the album’s material feels and sounds thoughtful and spacious — with the material arguably being some for the most atmospheric she has written and released to date while much of the album’s songs evoking specific times and places for its creator. “Sometimes songs are like secret rooms where you can say things that you don’t say anywhere else,” Charlotta Perers shares. “Final Call,” which was released as a single when See How the Light Falls was initially supposed to be released now takes Perers to a specific moment: “When I listen to it now I remember my room at the hospital, the leaves moving outside the window, the nurses coming in and out and that special sound of the door which gave a little squeak every time someone opened it,” she recalls. 

See How The Light Falls‘ latest single, the slow-burning  “Let Love In” is an atmospheric  track centered around hazy synths, shimmering and gently plucked strings, gently padded beats, Perers’ gorgeous and achingly tender vocals and a soaring hook. The result is a song that’s features intimate and introspective lyrics with a hauntingly beautiful cinematic quality. And while bringing Kate Bush and JOVM mainstay ACES to mind, the track evokes the feeling of desperately longing to be more open with others and taking new steps to change that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Initially created as a solo project by its Pembroke, Ontario-born and-based creative mastermind, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jordon Zadorozny, Blinker The Star eventually expanded into a trio by the time they signed to A&M Records, who released the project’s first two albums — 1995’s self-titled debut and 1996’s A Bourgeois Kitten. During that period, the band toured steadily, building a profile nationally and elsewhere.

In 1997, Zadorozny relocated from Montreal to Los Angeles, where he worked with Courtney Love, helping craft songs for Hole’s acclaimed Celebrity Skin. While in Los Angeles, Zadorozny began soaking up new influences and became increasingly fascinated with production. Signing with Dreamworks in 1999, the band, which at the time featured Zadorozny, Failure’s Kelli Scott (drums), longtime bassist Pete Frolander and a rotating cast of Southern California-based session musicians recorded and released their critically applauded third album August Everywhere, which they supported with touring across North America with Our Lady Peace, Sloan, Failure and The Flaming Lips. 

Returning back to Pembroke in 2002, Zadorozny built his first commercial recording studio and began working with Sam Roberts, contributing drums and producing Roberts’ breakthrough debut EP The Inhuman Condition. Zadorozny also worked on albums by Melisa Auf der Maur, Chris Cornell, Lindsey Buckingham and others.

During the Winter of 2003, Zadorozny wrote and recorded Blinker the Sky’s fourth album Still In Rome as a duo with Kelli Scott. Following a brief tour to support the album, the Pembroke, Ontario-born multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter quickly settled into the production side of the things working with an electric array of artists, including collaborative projects like Digital Noise Academy, SheLoom, and Abbey and The Angry Moon.

2012’s fourth album, We Draw Lines was the first Blinker The Star album that Zadorozny wrote and recorded since he started the project — and it began a rather prolific period that included 2013’s Songs from Laniakea Beach, a one-off single “Future Fires” 2015’s 11235 EP, 2017’s 8 of Hearts and last year’s  Careful With Your Magic. Interestingly, after completing a short run of shows last fall, Zodorozny began working on new music at his Skylark Park Studio. The solitude of his environment helped informed his forthcoming Blinker The Star album Juvenile Universe, which is slated for release this summer.

Juvenile Universe‘s first single “Way Off Wave.” Centered around a dense arrangement of shimmering guitars, sinuous bass lines, a blazing, distortion pedal-fueled guitar solo, atmospheric and droning synths and an enormous, arena rock friendly hook “Way Off Wave” brings Station to Station-era David Bowie to mind. “The song touches on the things we do and think to ourselves after a period of great change: our impulse to seek out new external realities, while internationally returning to stuck patterns and thoughts, which inhibit growth and acceptance,” as the Pembroke, Ontario-born and-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer/songwriter explains in press notes. “It is almost a dreamlike state we find ourselves in trying to move forward while mentally sloshing about in the past, looking for new answers that will never appear.”

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Marcelo Deiss is a Sao Paulo, Brazil-born, London-based artist whose music blurs the lines between indie rock, blues, folk and hard rock. Heavily influenced by visual artists like Steve Cutts and John Holcroft, Deiss’ work thematically touches upon social alienation, absurdity, despair and human greed — with an ironic, darkly humorous and satirical eye for the absurd in our every day lives. “Cutts and Holcroft’s work embodies a powerful and scary message about humankind which we can all really relate to as human beings. Their work really helped create a clear vision of what I was trying to achieve sonically,” the Sao Paulo-born, London-based artist says in press notes. Typically his work attempts to force audiences to see the obvious absurdities that frequently go unnoticed in our daily lives, by highlighting the news and situations that we all see but conveniently ignore, and the news we hear bu not really listen to, from our overuse and dependency on technology, to our shitty economic policies and our strange daily customs.

Deiss’ latest single, the 120 Minutes-era MTV-like “Horses Running” is centered around  his Bob Dylan-like delivery — half spoken, partially crooned and boozy vocals, fuzzy and distorted power chords, blasts of simmering synths, twinkling keys and rousingly anthemic hooks.  And while sonically recalling Odelay-era Beck, JOVM mainstays Sego and classic blues, the track is fueled by righteous indignation: thematically it focuses on the greed and social disaffection that could wind up killing all of us and destroying what’s left of the Earth. The song was directly inspired by Brexit, Donald Trump, the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, and others that deal with the impact of oppression — and his own observation that the worlds of Brave New World, 1984 and The Year Of The Flood aren’t very far from our own.

“I think it’s important to discuss topics about our society and the current problems we face together in the modern world. This to me seems more relevant due to the current situation our society is facing right now.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay San Mei Releases a Shimmering and Anthemic New Single

Throughout the course of this site’s nearly ten year history, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the Gold Coast, Australia-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and JOVM mainstay Emily Hamilton, the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed and rising indie rock act San Mei. Initially beginning as a synth pop-leaning bedroom recording project, Hamilton quickly received attention from this site and media outlets like NME, Indie Shuffle, NYLON and Triple J. Interestingly, her debut EP Necessary found the Aussie singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and JOVM mainstay moving towards a much more organic sound inspired by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Cat Power, Feist and others. 

Hamilton met songwriter, producer and musical phenom Oscar Dawson at BIGSOUND a couple of years ago, and the pair immediately hit it off. According to Hamilton, taking Dawson on as a producer and collaborator found the duo refining ideas, exploring different soundscapes and laying down the foundation for her — and in turn, San Mei’s — sonic progression. As Hamilton explains in press notes “[Dawson and I] hit it off straight away and it seemed like he understood where I was coming from, even if I had trouble conveying certain ideas in the demos I made at home.” Hamilton’s Dawson-produced sophomore EP Heaven was a decidedly shoegazer-like affair, featuring arena rock friendly hooks, big power chords and shimmering synths. Adding to a growing profile, last year Hamilton opened for the likes of G. Flip, K. Fly, Ali Barter and Jack River in her native Australia, went on an extensive national headlining tour and played nine shows across six days at SXSW. 

Her third EP Cry is slated for a Friday release through Sydney-based etcetc Records continues Hamilton’s ongoing collaboration with Oscar Dawson — and interestingly, the four song EP finds the Aussie JOVM mainstay drawing from the harder guitar-driven work of The Kills, Metric, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as the synth-driven pop like Grimes and Lykke Li. The EP’s latest single, title track “Cry” establishes the EP’s overall tone and sound — a hook driven, shimmering take on dream pop centered around atmospheric synths, reverb-drenched guitars and what may arguably be her most direct and personal songwriting to date. And much like her previously released material, the song reveals an incredibly self-assured songwriter, crafting some of her most earnest and ambitious material. It shouldn’t be surprising that she’s building a much larger international profile. 

“I wrote ‘Cry’ when I realised it had gotten to the middle of the year already, and time was flying like crazy,” Hamilton explains in press notes. “It made me think, I hadn’t really been paying attention to what was happening around me in the present, and only been thinking about the future, wishing time would hurry up so I could get to that next thing. I think when we’re young, we lament all the things we don’t have, or how we’re not where we want to be yet. We could actually end up wishing our time and youth away. This song is a reminder to myself to stop, breathe and appreciate this stage of my life and everything it has to offer.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

ORUS is a Montpellier, France-based, emerging electronic music artist, producer and DJ, who can trace the origins of his music career when he got into bedroom production during a 2016 trip to the States. Since then, the emerging French electronic music artist, producer and DJ trained professionally, released a string of well-received remixes — and released his debut single, “Your Time” late last year.

His latest single “I Know” is a sultry, French house-inspired, club banger centered around  a chopped and looped vocal sample, shimmering synth arpeggios and tweeter and woofer rocking beats. Sonically, the track recalls Homework-era Daft Punk, as “I Know” prominently features an infectious hook.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

The Hideaways — Danny Pugh (vocals, guitar, synth), Tim Burden (guitar, synth), Sam Bendall-Weeks (bass) and Jack Ford (drums) are a rapidly rising Bristol, UK indie rock act that have received attention nationally and across the blogosphere for a sound that features enormous power chords, driving rhythms while drawing a bit from trip hop and electronica.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising Bristol-based act played sets at this year’s New Colossus Festival — and they have plans for a co-headlining UK tour with The Alchemy in May. In the meantime, The Hideaways’ latest single, the Matt Glasbey-produced “Luminescence” further establishes their sound: enormous power chords, thunderous drumming and arena rock friendly hooks with a super slick studio polish — but interestingly, there are subtle nods to shoegaze, power pop and alt rock, which reveals a band ambitiously expanding their sound and approach.  “I reckon Luminescence is a spot on example of what we’re about musically” says frontman Danny Pugh. “When we’re writing we always try to stick a few left turns in tunes that might catch people off guard a bit. That’s what we wanted to get from mixing the psychedelic, eerie choruses with all the snarl and noise in the verses. Then for the outro we just wanted something massive that’d give everyone a proper melodic smack in the face”.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their first two EPs, which have received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6, the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based indie act Junk Drawer — Stevie Lennox (guitar, synth, vocals), Jake Lennox (guitar, synths ass, drums, vocals), Brian Coney (guitar, bass) and Rory Dee (drums, bass, guitar, synths, piano, backing vocals) —  have firmly established a unique sound that draws from Krautrock, post-punk and psych rock while earning quite a bit of acclaim in their native Northern Ireland: they’re the first DIY act to ever win a Northern Ireland Music Prize for Best Single with last year’s critically applauded “Year of the Sofa.” They’re also responsible for spearheading the independent Northern Irish music community with the acclaimed Litany of Failures compilations, which have become something of an institution. And adding to a growing national and regional profile, the act have toured across the UK and Ireland, opening for the likes of Mclusky, Built to Spill, Jeffrey Lewis and And So I Watch You From Afar.

The Belfast-based quartet’s highly-anticipated Chris Ryan-produced full-length debut Ready For The House is slated for an April 24, 2020 release through Art for the Blind Records reportedly finds the rising act channeling Pavement, Silver Jews and Beak> with the album’s material veering between slacker rock, post-punk, kraurock and psych across seven songs that thematically touch upon malaise, self-worth, the transience of mental illness and the fragmented and distorted narrative that it brings with it.

The album’s first single “Temporary Day” is a decidedly krautrock-inspired track, centered around an off-kilter and propulsive motorik groove, droning synths, blasts of fuzzy guitars and Jake Lennox’s ironically detached vocals. And while nodding at Pavement, the song chronicles a struggle with sexual identity and eating disorders and the string of the constant internalization of these issues on mental health. “‘Temporary Day’ is about having a temporary day of relief from all the horrible feelings I usually have.” the band’s Jake Lennox says in press notes. “The fog ascends briefly & I can think clearly for a time. Also about my face not being puffy from burst blood vessels because I hadn’t thrown up in a day or two.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Tiger Darrow is a Dallas-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, perhaps best known for her roles in the Spy Kids franchise and Shark Boy and Lava Girl. Since the release of those movies, Darrow has grown up and pursued a career in music — first behind the scenes writing for other artists and then eventually as a solo artist, influenced by St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Bulow, and Lana Del Rey.

Darrow has opened for the likes of Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians, The Eagles, and Erykah Badu and she’s also played as a sideperson for Durand Jones and The Indications, Zack Villere, Camille Trust and Wakey! Wakey! Her latest single “Brother’s Girl” is a atmospheric yet slickly produced, radio friendly bop centered around Darrow’s sultry crooning and skittering trap beats — and while evoking an unfulfilled longing, the song features an ironic plot twist: the song’s narrator describes falling for her brother’s girl. Sounds like an episode of Jerry Springer, indeed!

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: RidingEasy Records Releases Indianapolis-based Band’s Previously Unreleased Album 50 Years After Its Recording

Over the course of this site’s almost 10 year history — JOVM turns 10 in June — I’ve spilled quit a bit of virtual ink writing about RidingEasy Records’ and Permanent Records’ ongoing Brown Acid compilation series. The series’ 10th edition is slated for an April 20, 2020 release, and much like its predecessors, the forthcoming new edition will remind listeners that there’s a massive amount of incredible heavy psych, proto-metal and proto-stoner rocker that has seemingly been lost to the sands of time — but has been slowly rediscovered by RidingEasy Record and Permanent’s staff. 

During the late 1960s, Barry Crawford (vocals, keyboard), Jim Lee (lead vocals, bass), Mike Saligoe (drums), John Schaffer (lead guitar) and Richard Strange (rhythm guitar, vocals) started a band on Indianapolis’ West Side — and when they started the band they chose what they thought was the coolest name possible: ICE. The quintet quickly became one of the first emerging bands from their hometown to play a set of originals throughout the Midwest, performing at high schools, college campuses and venues. Building upon a growing profile, they eventually opened for national touring acts like Three Dog Night, SRC, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others in arenas and theaters. 

In 1970, the members of the Indianapolis-based psych rock band recored 10 songs of original material at Chicago’s 8-Track Studios, only to break up shortly after the sessions. Two of the album’s tracks were eventually released as a 45 in 1972 — but confusingly under a different band name: Zukus! Interestingly, that 45 managed to receive regional airplay. The A-side of that single “Running High” was featured on Brown Acid: The Ninth Trip. While licensing “Running High” for the ninth edition of Brown Acid, the folks at RidingEasy Records discovered that ICE had recorded an entire album that had been languishing in obscurity, with the 2-inch master tapes had been shelved and forgotten until recently. RidingEasy Records then converted the analog tape tracks to digital files, remixed them to preserve the original vocals and instrumentation, packaging the material as The Ice Age. 

50 years after the initial recording sessions that produced the album will finally be released — and see the light of day. Sonically, the material reportedly features 10 songs of hard-edger rock with enormous, radio friendly pop hooks that recalls Grand Funk Railroad, The Guess Who, and The Move. Centered around fuzzy power chords, shimmering organ arpeggios, propulsive drumming, some dexterous guitar soloing and enormous, arena rock friendly hooks, The Ice Age’s first single “Run to Me” finds the band meshing trippy and ambient-like psychedelia with explosive riffage that manages to recall the aforementioned Grand Funk Railroad and The Guess Who, along with a subtly nod of Steppenwolf. Listening to the track, there’s a sense that ICE if history was a bit more fair, the Indianapolis-based act should have been much larger. 

The Ice Age is slated for a May 15, 2020 release. Be on the lookout. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Rochester, NY-based metal/prog rock trio King Buffalo — Sean McVay (guitar, lead vocals), Dan Reynolds (bass) and Scott Donaldson (drums, vocals) — formed back in 2013, and with the release of demo, several split releases, a handful of one-off singles and an energetic live show, the members of King Buffalo quickly earned an international profile in the metal and prog rock scenes. And with their self-recorded and self-produced full-length debt Orion, King Buffalo firmly established a sound that meshed elements of heavy psych, stoner rock and the blues in a way that many critics compared to Tool and Pink Floyd among others.

2018’s Ben McLeod-produced sophomore album Longing To Be The Mountain found the band expanding upon the hard rock and stoner rock sound that own them attention — but while increasingly incorporating elements of expansive prog rock. Longing To Be The Mountain‘s highly-anticipated follow-up, the self-recorded and self-produced Dead Star EP reportedly finds the band pushing the psychedelia aspects of their sound into the cosmic ether with elements of ambient drone, space rock, prog rock, synths paired with the bluesy hard rock and early metal riffage of their earliest efforts.

“In the early stages of Dead Star, we made the decision to make a strong commitment to experimentation,” explains guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay. “From exploring different time signatures, tunings and textures, to tweaking the song writing processes themselves. We’re extremely proud of these recordings, and feel it’s some of our most ambitious work yet.” Adds the band’s Scott Donaldson, “These six songs deviate and expand on horizons that we as King Buffalo haven’t reached. It’s extremely exciting to make something familiar, but unlike anything we’ve previously done. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”

“Eta Carinae” Dead Star EP‘s latest single is an expansive and hypnotic, prog rock-inspired take on their sound. Clocking in at a little over eight minutes, the track is centered around a chugging and forceful Black Sabbath and Rush-like riffage, thunderous syncopation, rapid fire tempo changes and some ambient and shimmering synth bursts and paired with dystopian sci-fi lyrics and imagery that feel much like our own fucked up world.
The members of King Buffalo will be embarking on a tour to support Dead Star EP and it includes a March 21, 2020 stop at Mercury Lounge. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates 

Mar 19 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Mar 20 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott
Mar 21 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
Mar 26 – Lansing, MI @ Mac’s Bar
Mar 27 – Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo
Mar 28 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
Mar 29 – Winnipeg, MB @ Park Theatre
Mar 31 – Calgary, AB @ Palomino
Apr 2 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Apr 3 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Apr 5 – Portland, OR @ Lola’s Room
Apr 7 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Apr 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Apr 10 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Apr 11 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Apr 13 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
Apr 14 – St Louis, MO @ Duck Room
Apr 15 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
Apr 16 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Apr 17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Café
Apr 18 – Syracuse, NY @ Funk N Waffles

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

SPECTRES  is a Vancouver-based post-punk act founded in 2005 by Brian Gustavson. And since the band’s formation, they’ve been popularly cited as being one of acts responsible for kicking off Canada’s renewed interest in the post-punk sound. Interestingly, the band was initially inspired by the British anarcho-punk scene of the late 70s and early 80s, the Vancouver-based post-punk meshed that scene’s ethos with post punk stylings and an uncanny knack for crafting hook driven, catchy material. But over the years, the band’s sound has evolved, increasingly incorporating elements of New Wave and punk.

“The band started as a way to creatively explore 1980s British anarcho-punk and while creatively we have drifted in new directions, this core influence still holds a lot of inspiration for us,” the band’s Zach Batalden  (guitar) says in press notes. Bands like The Mob, Crisis, Crass and Zounds are all still very important for us. From there we took a deep interest in ’80s post-punk and new wave with bands like The Sound, The Chameleons, Theatre of Hate and Modern English, central to the way our sound has developed.”

Slated for release this Friday, through Artoffact Records, the Vancouver-based post-punk act’s soon-to-be released Jason Corbett-produced album Nostalgia lyrically finds the band touching upon the alienation of modern life and the search for hope in an increasingly terrifying world. “Deepening political partisanship, aging, and finding one’s own way through alienating times are common themes the on the Nostalgia LP,” says Batalden. Sonically, the material fnds the band continuing their ongoing exploration of a decidedly post-punk like sound with Gustavon’s plaintive and melodic vocals ethereally floating over chiming guitars and propulsive beats. “For the new album, Nostalgia, we were listening to a lot of Flying Nun bands like The Bats, The Verlaines and The Clean as well,” Batalden adds.

“Years of Lead,” Nostalgia’s latest single is a decidedly New Order-like take on post-punk as its centered around jangling and shimmering angular bursts of guitars, four-on-the-floor drumming and rousingly anthemic hook. Interestingly, much like “Northern Towns” off the band’s “Provincial Wake” 7 inch, “Years of Lead” features a pitch perfect, deceptively anachronistic, era specific production paired with a bittersweet and nostalgic air.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although they’ve gone through a series of lineup changes throughout their history, the Seattle-based indie act The Grizzled Mighty —  Ryan Granger (vocals, guitar), Jojo Braley (drums) and Jewel Loree (bass)  — have developed and maintained a reputation for crafting fuzzy and dirty, garage rock-tinged psych rock, influenced by The Stooges, T. Rex, Motorhead and others — and sweaty, high energy live shows. Building upon a growing profile, the members of The Grizzled Mighty have shared bills with The Dandy Warhols, Built to Spill, Death Valley Girls, Andrew WK, and a list of others.

The band’s third album Confetti Teeth is slated for an April 24, 2020 release through Freakout Records — and from the album’s first single “Rewind” is a Nirvana and Ecstatic Vision-like take on psych rock: layers of fuzzy and distortion pedaled power chords, a fiery and explosive guitar solo, propulsive and thunderous drumming, enormous hooks and howled vocals meant to be played loud.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
With the release of the critically praise single “Blister” earlier this year, the Champaign, IL-based power pop/punk act Nectar — Kamila Glowacki, Aaron Shults, Isabel Skidmore and Jake Mott — received attention across the blogosphere for a raucous, 90s alt rock-inspired sound with big, infectious hooks. Building upon a growing profile, the Champaign-based quartet’s latest release, the breakneck single “Fishy” is 92 seconds of enormous, sludgy grunge rock power chords and infectious, sugary sweet hooks. Much like its predecessor, “Fishy” is deceptive song in which upbeat melodies are paired with melancholy lyrics — with the new single detailing the swooning feelings of excitement, uncertainty, fear and anxiety towards a new crush that brings  Veruca Salt, Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins and others to mind. 
Interestingly, the 120 Minutes era MTV-like “Fishy” was originally recorded and released on a split 7 inch with Jupiter Styles (formerly known as Single Player). The band re-recorded “Fishy” during the “Blister” sessions.
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