JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates A Place to Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann’s 49th birthday.
Tag: post punk
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Tina Weymouth!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Tina Weymouth’s 75th birthday.
Live Concert Photography: Bonnie Trash with Clone and The Acute at The Wood Shop 11/13/25
Live concert photography of Bonnie Trash with Clone and The Acute at The Wood Shop earlier this month.
New Video: JOVM Mainstay Sylvia Black Shares Brooding and Sultry “Talking in Tongues”
Los Angeles-based multifaceted producer, singer/songwriter, bassist, performer, restless performer and JOVM mainstay Sylvia Black has had a long-held reputation for being difficult to pin down. And since her first job singing and entertaining at a resort hotel in Northern Japan as a teen, music has been the JOVM mainstays lifeline.
Throughout her career, Black has steadily gained momentum as a writer and producer, consistently creating music on her own times, while simultaneously cementing her place in the post-punk and goth-romantic renaissance and been restlessly creative. Her lengthy credits reflect her eclectic tastes and wide-ranging abilities. She was the frontperson of the New York-based trio KUDU with Deantoni Parks (drums, production) and Nicci Kasper (keys, production) in the early 00s. Black also has writing and recording credits with Grammy Award-winning pop act Black Eyed Peas, Daphne Guinness and more. Her lengthy resume includes collaborations with legends like Tony Visconti, Lydia Lunch and Moby, as well as The Knocks, Armand Van Helden and French electro pop duo Telepopmusik. And last, but definitely not lease, her sultry rendition of ‘I Put A Spell On You” appeared on the hit Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
As a bassist, Black has played with The Brand New Heavies‘ N’Dea Davenport, Living Colour‘s Muzz Skillings and with Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess.
The JOVM mainstay’s newest album, the 11-song Shadowtime is slated for a January 16, 2026 release. The album sees Black continuing her long-held approach of songwriting from the bottom up. “I find a beat that I’m in love with and go forward,” Black says. “The bass provides the floor, but as a singer, I’m also coming in with the roof. If you can write a beautiful song with just those two elements, bass notes and the voice, that’s a job well done.”
Written, produced and performed primarily by the JOVM mainstay the album was crafted with support from longtime mix engineer and creative foil Ruddy Lee Cullers. The album’s material will reportedly be a haunting exploration of nostalgia and futurism, that sees Black pushing her sound in new directions by weaving hypnotic rhythms, cinematic layers and raw, visceral emotion, while moving effortlessly from dance floor anthems to atmospheric meditations on love, loss and transcendence. “This album is about finding beauty in ruins,” Black says. “About letting the shadows speak through me. Returning to California brought out the memory and soul of my goth days gone by.”
Shadowtime‘s first single “Talking in Tongues” is a brooding blend of goth, New Wave and shoegaze that seemingly nods at Suicide, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and others, featuring a relentless motorik groove and industrial-like thump serving as an atmospheric bed for Black’s sultry delivery.
Black says, “It’s about one who has lost their agency by letting outward elements control them and deceive them. Or, a drunk bitch.”
Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Andy Partridge!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates XTC founder and frontman Andy Partridge’s 72nd birthday.
New Audio: Ireland’s Crá Croí Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Radiation Romance”
Deriving their name from the Gaelic word for “heartache,” “vexation of spirit,” County Cork-based duo Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — have employed a fiercely DIY ethos while establishing a sound that meshes elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars and sharp, hook-driven vocals.
The Irish duo’s work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapsed and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors.
The County Cork-based duo intend to release a handful of singles with an album and select live shows played over the next year or two. According to the band gigs happen only when the setting is right, because for the duo “art comes first” and their integrity matters more than exposure for the sake of exposure.
Their latest single, the brooding “Radiation Romance” seemingly channels She Wants Revenge and Interpol: swirling and angular power chords are paired with eerie atmospheric synths, a relentless, motorik-like groove and rousingly anthemic hook and chorus that serves as a stormy bed for CD’s punchy, yet Paul Banks-like vocal. Thematically, the song focuses is a tongue in check take on the nuclear annihilation that would make Vincent Price proud.
New Audio: Philadelphia’s Sri Lanka Shares Brooding and Driving “Solstice”
Sri Lanka is a Philadelphia-based band that originally formed back in 1986. The band quickly established a sound that draws from goth and post-punk, as well as elements of alternative rock and psych rock. They saw extraordinary popularity in the Philadelphia and New York underground music scenes of the late 1980s and 1990s before going through a series of tumultuous lineup changes following the departure of founding member and the tragic death of frontman Brett Turner
Suffering from depression, Turner took his own life back in 1989, when he was 20. The band went on to try out several vocalists before landing on Jose Maldonado. And with Maldonado, the Philadelphia-based post punk went on to record and release 1992’s Shadow and Ivy EP and 1993’s Here. Friction between band members Erb and Maldonado started early on and ultimately led to the band splitting down the middle shortly after the release of Here with Erb and Chairs going in one direction, Maldonado and Stein going in another. Rob Studt retired from music altogether.
Erb went on to rejoin his original founding partner Lee Daniels and formed the band [needle] in 1995.
Back in October 2020, the band announced the forthcoming release of Leviathan on their Facebook Fan page, after a 25 year hiatus. And that November, they released the album’s title track “Leviathan.” They also released two live recordings from Christmas 1998 at Philadelphia’s Club Memphis and February 1989 at Philadelphia’s Revival.
Leviathan‘s latest single “Solstice” is a driving bit of goth-tinged post punk featuring shoegazer guitar textures and industrial thump that seemingly channels Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like ACTORS, while showcasing the band’s ability to craft a driving and rousingly anthemic, catchy hook and chorus.
The band explains that “Solstice” was a previously unrecorded song written back in 1991 that may arguably one of the best songs they’ve ever written.
New Video: debdepan Shares Playful Visual for Cathartic “Ghost”
Margate, UK-based duo debdepan — Chelsea and Grace — officially formed back in 2022, but can trace their origins back to writing sessions during pandemic lockdowns. The duo quickly made a name for themselves through Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists Program, which lead to their breakthrough single “Darkest Hour.” “Darkest Hour” gained radio play across the US and Europe, landing on the Deutsche Alternative Charts — and earning the duo a publishing deal with Archangelo Music.
The pair’s debut EP, 2023’s OMEN saw the band firmly establishing dark pop bonafides. The EP’s material received airplay from BBC Introducing, BBC London and BBC 6 Music. Adding to a growing profile across both the UK and European Union, the Margate-based duo has started to make a run of the European festival circuit with standout sets at Portugal’s Westway Lab, Spain’s Pro Weekend and Focus Wales, as well as opening slots for cumgirl8, Miki Berenyi and Pete Doherty. Earlier this year, they opened for The Wants during the New York-based trio’s UK tour. And this month they will be opening for TRAITRS.
The duo’s highly-anticipated sophomore EP Lovers & Others is slated for a November 28, 2025 release through Silent Kid Records. The EP reportedly sees the duo leaner more into dance music-leaning arrangements while still retaining the harder, grunge-inspired roar and bite that have helped them win attention across Europe and elsewhere. And as a result, the rising British duo showcase a refined, genre-blurring sound that’s still emotionally charged — but is also physically irresistible.
Written in the year since the duo relocated to Margate, the EP reportedly sees them balancing introspective vulnerability with a”pretty sad girl but also kind of party” bit of duality — a reflection of the late-night emotional shifts in their town’s nightlife scene paired with long, contemplative costal walks.
Lovers & Others EP will feature the previously released “Habit,” and “The Girl,” and the EP’s final, pre-release single “Ghost.” “Ghost” begins with a mid-tempo bit of melodic pop-inspired post punk and goth that seems to channel Florence and the Machine, before making a rapid left turn to a throbbing bit of Echoes-era The Rapture-like dance punk banger. But at its core, is the hopefulness of a new potential love, followed by the bitter ache of having that hope dashed when they inexplicably ghost. And then, there’s the release of bilious anger of discovering that person is a coward, who couldn’t — or wouldn’t — tell you the truth. “This song had to feel like a journey,” the band explains. “It needed a big fat pop chorus to juxtapose the dark and miserable verses.”
Recorded in Ramsgate, UK with engineer Mike Collins, “Ghost,” is informed by his inspired production choices. “Mike had a wicked idea to layer a bunch of guitars in the middle 8 to really build some tension,” the duo says. The end result is a song that showcases the band’s ability to balance aching vulnerability with explosive catharsis.
The playful, Halloween-inspired video for “Ghost.” was shot by the band across various Margate-based locations and features them dressed as DIY-styled ghosts, complete with goofy errors, including a visible drone controller peeking out beneath one of the duo’s costume.
“I borrowed my dad’s drone to film it, and if you look closely you can spot the controller under the ghost sheet!” they explain. “We wanted something playful with the ghost theme that we could shoot ourselves. Filming around Margate was pretty embarrassing, but at least the costumes meant we couldn’t see most people laughing at us.”
New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Returns with Punchy “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE”
Acclaimed, multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born, Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu‘s sophomore album 2023’s STRUGGLER was an exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life, our ability to endure and how to get through it all.
The album’s material was deeply inspired by a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side, and questions of life and beauty that he found himself contemplating during readings of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Recorded between the States and Australia, STRUGGLER‘s producers traversed several different musical genres — and includes Jason Evigan, who has worked with RUFUS DU SOL and SZA; Mikey Freedom Hart, who worked on Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are; Sol Was, who worked on Beyoncé’s Renaissance; and Owusu’s long-time collaborators and producers Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.
Earlier this year, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay released “PIRATE RADIO,” the first bit of material since the release of his sophomore album, which I hope means a new album is on the horizon. But in the meantime, Owusu shares the fittingly Halloween-themed “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE.” Anchored around a punchy, hook-driven punk rock-meets-Brit pop arrangement, the acclaimed Aussie’s punchy in-your-face vocal delivers observations on the deeply entrenched thought indoctrination, divisive global conversations and absurd circular logic of our mad, mad, mad world — with song scathingly mocking Christian Nationalists, Donald Trump and his MAGA death cult. The song points out that we’re in a figurative zombie apocalypse, and the lemmings are blindly jumping off the cliff . . .
“For most people, the shaking up of what they consider to be true is too scary and inconvenient. Once you’ve picked your truth, you live by it staunchly despite whatever pesky ‘facts’ and ‘logic’ get in the way,” Genesis Owusu explains. “Pride won’t let you be wrong, fear won’t let you be free, dogma won’t let you be aware. The delusion is more comfortable. But the longer you sit in that delusion, the faster the zombification spreads through your body like a plague; like a scourge. Gotta be brave enough to break from the cult.”
Directed by Issac Brown, the accompanying video for “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE” follows the acclaimed JOVM mainstay desperately trying to escape a collection of Thriller-meets-Internet troll-like zombies — with a fitting spooky season twist.
Throwback: Happy 62nd Birthday, Johnny Marr!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Johnny Marr’s 62nd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Larry Mullen, Jr.
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates U2 co-founder and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr.’s 64th birthday.
Video Interview: DahL’s Nassir Liselle
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms interviews DahL’s Nassir Liselle.
New Audio: Atlanta’s Silk Daisys Shares Swooning, Halloween-Themed “Haunted House”
Atlanta-based dream pop/post-punk duo Silk Daisys — James Abercrombie and romantic partner Karla Jean Davis — have been making music together for some time, but their forthcoming Silk Daisys and Damon Moon co-produced debut will be their first, official release. Interestingly, the Silk Daisys name has been around even further, with Abercrombie using the name on Soundcloud for about a decade to upload random covers and the occasional original song.
“We recorded our album over two weeks with Damon Moon (Bathe Alone, Sleepers Club) at this studio Standard Electric Recorders in Atlanta. Damon was awesome to work with,” the duo says. “We spent a ton of time just talking about music the three of us love and sharing songs back and forth. We’d name some obscure part of a song as a reference and he’d get it immediately, and dial in the tones perfectly. Damon also played drums and percussion on the album. The three of us produced it together, and it was all really collaborative and fun.”`
But in the meantime, the Atlanta-based duo’s latest single, the Halloween-themed “Haunted House,” channels Pygmalion and Souvlaki-era Slowdive with the song featuring fuzzy and swirling guitar textures, glistening synth bursts, thunderous drumming, boy-girl harmonies and enormous hooks and choruses. And at its core, the song sees the duo pairing goth and Romantic themes, evoking the bitter longing for a loved one you can never get back.
“Haunted House” is what I’d consider our only true shoegaze song, though shoegaze elements find their way into our songs just because we’re such huge fans of the genre. When I wrote it, I was thinking about this great Lee Hazlewood song, ‘Won’t You Tell Your Dreams,'” says Silk Daisys’ James Abercrombie. “It’s about how he can’t stop dreaming of an old love. It has this really haunting vibe to it. We’re also really into haunted houses and carnival dark rides and anything in that realm… Karla listens to a lot of ghost story podcasts. Our daughter has ghost hunting equipment and takes it with her to old places. I tend to be a little on the skeptical side, but I am coming around. I really love ghost stories where spirits are doing something routine, like getting their morning coffee. There’s something really interesting to me about the memory of someone being so strong that it feels palpable, like it’s inhabiting your space and haunting you. Karla had the idea to make the vocals at the end sound super ghostly, which I think really adds to the spookiness of the track.”
New Audio: TRAITRS Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Burn In Heaven”
With the release of their first three albums, 2017’s Rites and Rituals, 2018’s Butcher’s Coin and 2021’s Horses in the Abattoir, Toronto-based coldwave duo TRAITRS blended horror-based imagery with anthemic choruses and cinematic, atmospheric soundscapes. And during that time, the duo evolved from bedroom artists selling cassette tapes to amassing millions of streams globally and playing hundreds of shows internationally.
The Canadian duo’s latest single, the Josh Korody-produced, Matt Colton-mastered “Burn In Heaven,” is their first single since the release of Horses in the Abattoir. Channeling The Cure, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins, “Burn In Heaven” continues a run of broodingly cinematic material that showcases their unerring knack for crafting rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.
Lyrically, the song is inspired and informed by the harrowing real-life soy of 23-year-old Anneliese Michel, who underwent 67 exorcisms before dying of malnutrition — a tragedy that exposed the devastating consequences when blind faith eclipses medical science. Exploring themes of religious extremism, possession and the clash between faith and science, “Burn In Heaven,” is perfect for spooky season while being big club and arena friendly.
“The song deals with possession and the extremities of faith vs science,” the Toronto-based duo explains. “It examines the instilled religious beliefs where people think they’re going to get a pardon by god for horrifying acts when they get to heaven. It’s this idea that shaped the entirety of our new record.”
The band’s forthcoming album Possessor is slated for release next year.