Tag: Nashville TN

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Thad Cockrell (vocals) and Jeremey Lutito (drums, production and programming), the Nashville, TN-based electro pop duo Leagues captured the attention of both mainstream media outlets and the blogosphere with the 2012 release of their self-titled debut EP and its follow-up You Belong Here — thanks to the massive success of singles “Spotlight” and “Walking Backwards,” which saw significant radio airplay. Other songs from both the EP and You Belong Here also made appearances in several TV shows, films and commercials.

Although slated for a September 9, 2016 release through Dualtone Records, You Belong Here‘s highly anticipated follow-up Alone Together can actually trace its origins back to 2014 when the duo of Cockrell and Lutito wrote, revised and recorded it almost immediately after the release of their critically applauded debut; however, as soon as the duo finished the album, they had an unshakable, sinking feeling that the album wasn’t right. As Thad Cockrell explains in press notes “It’s hard to see when you’re in the middle of that process, but I think we both had this growing feeling that we weren’t saying everything we wanted to say and weren’t pushing each musically to do all we could do. So we had to wipe the slate clean and start over.” Wholly produced by Lutito, the duo set around reworking and re-imaginging some of the previously recorded material off the initial Alone Together sessions and completely new songs — and as you hear on the album’s latest single “Lipstick Coffee,” the duo have come up with material that’s accessible and anthemic while being sonically dense and challenging as the duo pack the song with buzzing and undulating synths, a sinuous bass line, complex syncopation, Cockrell’s seductive, come-hither crooning, distorted electronic bleeps, beeps and bloops, and an incredibly surprising trap house bridge consisting of enormous boom-bap beats and bass drops. Sonically, the latest single reminds me of the sense of awe I had when I first heard Garbage‘s first two albums — in which every single time I hear the song I notice some deeper nuance that I somehow hadn’t noticed; however, you wind up hearing a wild array of influences from hip-hop, funk, soul, electro pop, trap being seamlessly meshed into something strangely familiar and alien.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Primarily comprised of its creative masterminds and founding members Daniel and Jenna Watters, Austin, TX-based indie soul act The Watters can trace their origins to when the band’s founding members met as children. As the story goes, they first met while playing on the same pee wee football team in Sedona, AZ that Jenna’s father coached — although they did attend rival grade schools. The duo eventually went to high school together and at that point, began a collaboration that can trace its origins to when the duo performed together at their high school graduation and then fell in love; in fact, they’ve performed together for over 12 years, written together for over 8 and have recorded 6 albums together while in the Denver, CO then Nashville, TN-based nationally touring act The Oak Creek Band.

Now writing and performing together as The Watters, the duo’s forthcoming debut effort Great Unknown was influenced by Daniel and Jenna’s own personal experience. As Daniel Watters explains in press notes: “The concept of the Great Unknown came to us while we were in transition between Nashville and Austin. We were living in Sedona, AZ with my folks for three months having left Nashville and had no idea where we were moving to. Our bassist was going to move to California and so were we, but we happened to stop in Austin on our way back and fell in love. We were so torn on what to do, but we trusted our instincts and made the hard decision to leave our musical brother and start a new life in Austin. The Great Unknown is [about] the power of intuition and the beauty in uncertainty. Instead of finding fear in the unknown, I find it easier to see the beauty and opportunity in the unknown. Our move to Austin was a complete leap of faith, but a year later we are very happy here and feel an overwhelming support system here.”

Recorded at Cacophony Recorders, Great Unknown features some of the Austin, TX area’s best and most renowned musicians including Band of Heathens‘ Trevor Nealon, Golden Dawn Arkestra‘s Joe Woullard and Zumbi Richards and Erik Hokkanan and was recorded live to tape to best capture the band’s live sound.  Album title track and first single “Great Unknown” has the band pairing Muscle Shoals soul with 70s AM rock — a soulful horn arrangement and Jenna Watters’ effortlessly soulful vocals are paired with jangling guitars and gently propulsive drumming, along with a careful and deliberate attention to craft. Lyrically, the song focuses on two very different things -taking a big chance on your dreams with the hope that things will come out in your favor but also on something that people often forget, sometimes you can’t fight the tide; things will sort themselves out in their own time and in their own way even your own dreams.

 

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Over the past few months, Jack Berry, a Reno, NV-born and Nashville, TN-based singer/songwriter and rock/blues artist has quickly become one of my favorite artists of 2016 as I’ve previously written about two singles off Berry’s forthcoming full-length Mean Machine  The Bull,” a sultry and bluesy single with an anthemic hook that sounded as though it were Superunknown-era Soundgarden — in particular “Mailman” “Spoonman,”and “Fell on Black Days,” as well as “Bad Dog,” a swaggering, cocksure song that continued in the arena rock-friendly vein of “The Bull” but bluesier, as though Berr were attempting to channel Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.
Mean Machine’s latest single “Coal” will further cement Berry’s growing reputation for bluesy and anthemic power chord-based rock that manages to possess a moody, sensual and contemporary take on hard rock and the blues,  complete with his signature cocksure swagger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Since their formation back in the 2007, the Atlanta, GA-based quartet The Pinx, currently comprised of Adam McIntyre (vocals, rhythm guitar), Chance McColl (lead guitar), Jonathan Lee (bass) and Dwayne Jones (drums), have developed a reputation across the Southeast for a relentless touring schedule that had the band opening for the likes of Ben Harper and Relentless7 among others, for songs that have appeared during highlights broadcast on ESPN and Fox Sports, and for a sound that draws heavily from The MC5, Cheap Trick, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and others — or in other words 70s-leaning arena friendly power chord rock.

After a brief hiatus that saw McIntyre’s stint with fellow Atlanta-based band StoneRider during their European tour and a massive lineup change, the band reformed and with a change of songwriting approach and sonic direction. As McIntyre says of the material he wrote that comprised the band’s forthcoming new album, Freedom: “A lot of the stuff I learned about songwriting during my decade in Nashville came back. Not the formulaic bro-country aspect, but folks like Todd Snider and Dan Baird. Smart, funny guys who write songs that reflect themselves well. I wanted some of that to come through. It all has to mix with the rock & roll and the blues and soul and everything, and I put together a band tailor-made to do just that.” McIntyre also adds ““These songs are all true stories. I tried to write concise, simple little rock and roll songs. This is the set I want to play live.”

Freedom‘s latest single “Baby Won’t Ya” is an Southern double fried, whiskey soaked, The Black Crowes-indebted cover of The MC5 that retains the song’s anthemic, power chord-heavy swagger but with a studio sheen that doesn’t clean up the original’s sleazy dive bar feel.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Lyric Video for Fleurie’s Atmospheric “Sirens”

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past year or so, you might recall that I had written about up-and-coming Canton, MI-born, Nashville, TN-based classically trained pianist and singer/songwriter Lauren Straham and her solo recording […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of siblings Kyle Davis (drums) and Tyler Davis (guitar, vocals), who were actually share the same birthday, two years apart, along with Jota Ese (bass) and Ric Alessio (organ and vocals), Nashville, TN-based quartet Chrome Pony have developed a growing profile for a fuzzy and heavily indebted 60s psych and garage rock sound. And with the release of Illegal Smiles, You Are the Pisces, Lazy Bones and their latest effort Past Lives, the Nashville-based quartet have added themselves to a  growing list of artists that includes contemporary artists like Cool Ghouls, Raccoon Fighter,  The Black Angels, Elephant Stone, Sleepy Sun and others.

Past Lives’  latest single “Ragged Child” has the quartet pairing twisting and tumbling organ chords, a rolling bass line and shimmering and chiming guitar chords with propulsive drumming, a trippy guitar solo and anthemic hooks, and the result is a shuffling and shambling, seemingly jam-based song that subtly meshes elements of grunge rock with 60s psych rock.

Chrome Pony is currently on tour with Cage the Elephant across both the European Union and the UK, and when the quartet returns to the States in March, they’ll be playing a series of US dates including stops at Savannah Stopover Festival and the Sweetwater 420 Festival. Check out tour dates here: http://www.bandsintown.com/ChromePony?came_from=198&mc_cid=528c75bfcc&mc_eid=c74f701724

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Born in Reno, NV and currently based in Nashville, TN, alt rock/blues rock artist Jack Berry can trace the origins of his recording career to when he wrote and recorded his first album while studying in Los Angeles. Berry then worked and performed along the West Coast as one half a of a duo before before he decided that it was time to go solo. Relocating to Nashville, Berry spent several months couch-surfing and writing and recording material with the hopes that he could catch the attention of that city’s local press.

Eventually, Berry began receiving praise from outlets both locally and nationally from the likes of Nashville Scene, The Deli Magazine, Blues Rock Review and others, which resulted in slots at Toronto‘s North by Northeast (NXNE), CMJ and SXSW‘s Red Gorilla Festival. Since then, Berry has played a number of venues between his home base and NYC; however, 2016 may be his breakthrough year with the Spring 2016 release of his latest album, Mean Machine. 

“The Bull,” Mean Machine‘s first single is a sultry and bluesy single that pairs arena rock friendly power chords, propulsive and carefully syncopated drumming, an anthemic hook and Berry’s seductive crooning and howling that sonically seems to draw from Soundgarden (think of “Mailman” “Spoonman,”and “Fell on Black Days” off Superunknown) as it does from old-school blues and contemporary rock.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Hazy Synth Pop and Visuals of Nashville’s REMMI

Rachel Smith is an up-and-coming  Nashville, TN-based singer/songwriter and producer, whose solo, electro pop project REMMI has received attention for her collaborations with Lucian, CAPPA and Black Coast — and for her appearance on the […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Creepily Surreal New Video for Jas Patrick’s “Harpy”

Nashville, TN-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jas Patrick can trace the origins of his music career to when he was a small child — at four, Patrick had started playing drums and by the time, he […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy, Technicolor Video for All Them Witches’ “Dirt Preachers”

  With the release of their 2012 debut effort, Our Mother Electricity and 2014’s sophomore effort Lightning At The Door, the Nashville, TN-based quartet All Them Witches, comprised of Charles Michael Parks, Jr. (vocals, bass), Ben […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past few months, you may recall that I’ve written about Nashville, TN-based electro pop trio BASECAMP. Comprised of Aaron Miller, Aaron C. Harmon, and Jordan Reyes, the trio have quickly developed a reputation for a sound that equally draws from electronic music and the past 10-15 years of R&B and pop music; in fact, “Watch My Back,” arguably one of the best singles I’ve heard this year, and Greater Than‘s opening track paired silky smooth vocals with skittering percussion, glitchy electronics, chilly, swirling electronics, glistening synths and a tight, memorable hook to craft a sound that is reminiscent of Timbaland’s revolutionary work with Missy Elliot and Aaliyah.

The Nashville-based trio’s latest single “In My Veins” features Del The Funky Homosapien one of the more unheralded emcees around and Billie Black on a song that sonically manages to owe debts to classic house music and contemporary R&B as the song pairs arpeggio synths, stuttering and skittering drum programming, strummed guitar, wobbling low end and swirling electronics with silky smooth vocals on a sweaty and sexy dance-floor orientated track that compares lust and love to a powerful addiction. Chemically speaking, love is awfully close to being addicted to chocolate, caffeine and several other drugs.

Billie Black contributes some sultry vocals to the song’s hook while Del The Funky Homosapien contribues about 16 bars that expands on the song’s title. and compares being in love to shooting heroin — and in turn, being incredibly difficult to stop.

What “In My Veins” does is further cement the Nashville-based trio’s for slickly produced, sensual electro pop that clearly draws from R&B and dance music — in this case, house music — while possessing an emotional directness and thoughtfulness that seems all too rare.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Charlee Cook, Chance Cook, Will Hicks, and Dom Marcoaldi, the Nashville, TN-based experimental quartet Linear Downfall have developed a reputation for a sound that blends abrasive, almost psychotic noise with gorgeous melodies. And as the band notes, their music is meant to tap into the highs and lows of life and challenges the listener to look inward. After the self-release of three full-length albums, an EP and some rather extensive touring across the US, the band managed to catch the attention of The Flaming Lips, which interestingly enough led to a side project featuring members of the band, that they dubbed Electric Würms.

Last year may have arguably been the most productive and prolific period in the band’s history, as they completed a tour to support their third full-length album Fragmental Hippocampus, released the first Electric Würms album, Musik, die Schwer zu Twerk and released a 5 song EP as the band was busily putting the finishing touches on their forthcoming effort, Sufferland, which is slated for a November 6 release. As the band notes in press notes the new album will be released with a full-length film meant to correspond with the material on the album. In some way, it would seem that the material on the album would be — at least informally — the film’s score. 

With that in mind, Sufferland‘s first single “The Question” is a tense and uneasy song consisting of propulsive, tribal drumming, feedback, electronic squeaks, squawks, bleeps and bloops. twisting and turning organ chords and obscured by the abrasive, and menacing post apocalyptic noise is a trippy, off-kilter sense of melody that makes the song evoke that unsettled feeling you’d have after waking up from a very fucked up dream.


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