Tag: psych pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mournful Sounds and Surreal Visuals for Stefan Weich’s Latest Single “Louie”

Stefan Weich’s second and latest single “Louie” continues on the same vein as “Holy Night” as swirling and ambient electronics are paired with soft padded drumming, bursts of bluesy guitar chords and Weich’s plaintive falsetto crooning lyrics about a relationship in which both people are slowly drifting apart. At the heart of the song is the unspoken and built up resentments that can cause people to slowly drift apart over time, and a lingering sense of regret of what happened — and how it happened.

The recently released music video for the song also fittingly featured some warped and kaleidoscopic, psychedelic imagery — in some way, it evokes what I would imagine tripping on hallucinogens would feel like as you were wandering around a lonely and surreal city landscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Jacqueline Caruso (keys and vocals) and Augustus Green (bass, synth, production/beats and sound design), Washington, DC-based psych pop duo The Galaxy Electric specialize in a sound and aesthetic that mixes Brazilian bossa nova and Tropicalia, 60s psychedelia and early synthesizer experimentation; in fact, adding to that aesthetic, the duo utilizes old-fashioned, lo-fi recording techniques, as well as the use of sound design-inspired arrangements and old-timey reverb and echo devices to craft a trippy and immersive sound that seemingly comes out of 1967.

“Temporal,” the latest single off the duo’s forthcoming Everything Is Light and Sound consists of Caruso’s gorgeous vocals paired with twisting and turning synth chords, bop-era jazz syncopated drumming and a sinuous bass line filtered through gentle layers of reverb and echo, and the result is an ethereal and trippy song  that focuses on the both the nature of time and our experience of it; all while evoking a similar vision of the future presented by the 1964 World’s Fair — a hopeful world that has used science and technology to solve humanity’s greatest problems in an efficient and timely fashion.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Yeasayer’s Ethereal and Psychedelic New Single

Yeasayer, the New York-based experimental/psych/electro pop trio comprised of Chris Keating (vocals, songwriting and production), Ira Wolf Tuton (vocals, songwriting and production) and Anand Wilder have been blogosphere darlings for the better part of a decade […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Return with Psychedelic, Egypt-Inspired Visuals for “Sphynx”

Comprised of founding members Marlon Magnée (keyboards), Sacha Got (guitar), Sam Lefevre (bass), Noé Delmas (drums) and Lucas Nunez, along with a rotating cast of vocalists including current lead vocalist Clémence Quélennec, lara Luciani, Jane Peynot and Marilou […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Swedish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Alexander and his solo dream pop/electro-pop Summer Heart has received international attention for a wistfully nostalgic, 60s psych pop-leaning, lo-fi sound that compares favorably to Caribou‘s earliest material, Washed Out, In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy, Painted Palms and others; in fact, his 2011 Please Stay EP received praise from The Guardian and The Star topped Hype Machine‘s charts. In his native Sweden, Alexander has a reputation for being a pioneer of Sweden’s burgeoning dream pop movement, a movement that includes Moonbabies, The Land Below, Hey Elbow, Blind Lake and Emerald Park.

Interestingly, Alexander’s international profile has grown as several of his songs have appeared in TV series — including the NBC series, Whitney, which brought him the attention of millions of American TV viewers. Now, if you were frequenting this site last year, you might recall that I wrote about “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” a song that consisted of jangling guitars, washboard-led percussion, layers of ethereal vocals and cascading synths with a warm buzzing summer afternoon warmth. His latest single “The Forbidden” off his forthcoming EP also named The Forbidden is a slow-burning and shoegaze-leaning single that pairs Alexander’s ethereal cooing with shimmering guitars and synths played through gentle amounts of reverb  and jazz-like drumming. And although the song evokes the sensation of waking up from a pleasant dream, just underneath its placid surface is a wistful melancholy that will remind the listener that all things will eventually dissipate.

Alexander along with a backing band featuring some of his dearest friends will be making Stateside appearances at SXSW and Williamsburg Brooklyn’s The Knitting Factory later this month. Check out tour dates below.

 

SXSW:

Wednesday 16th March

The Townsend – 1:05am

 

Saturday 19th March

Icenhauer’s – 1am

 

NYC:

Wednesday 23rd March

Live In Brooklyn – The Knitting Factory –

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6437785

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Perhaps best known for this time spent in New England-based psych rock band MMOSS, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Tuttle had developed a reputation as a artist of his own right with the release of his solo debut, an effort that had been praised for possessing a jittery, love-lorn anxiety paired with Tuttle’s dexterous guitar work and his carefully crafted psychedelic-tinged pop. Tuttle’s forthcoming sophomore effort, It Calls On Me, slated for a February 26 release through renowned indie label Trouble In Mind Records will further cement the New Hampshire-born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s reputation for crafted psych pop while revealing a subtle yet marked change in sonic direction as the material is dreamier and more ethereal, as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single and album title track “It Calls On Me.” Thanks to some impressive guitar licks played through a variety of effects pedals, paired with cymbal-led propulsive percussion, an equally propulsive bass line, Tuttle’s lilting and cooed vocals, the song sounds as though it could have been released sometime between 1963-1969 as the guitar solo reminds me quite a bit of Robby Kreiger’s expressive and expansive solo in The Doors‘ “Light My Fire,” while the song manages to be subtly modern as it channels contemporary acts such as Raccoon Fighter.

Tuttle and his touring band will play a number of dates throughout February and March to support the new album and it includes a stop in Brooklyn. Check out tour dates below.

Tour Dates

2/17: Detroit, MI –  Marble Bar
2/18: Chicago, IL – The Owl #
2/19: Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog #
2/20: Cincinnati, OH – The Comet #
2/21: Nashville, TN- East Room #
2/22: Atlanta, GA- 529 #
2/23: Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
2/24: Richmond, VA – TBA
2/25: Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
2/26: Providence, RI – AS220 ^
2/27: Boston, MA – Lillypad ^
2/28: Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace ^
# – w/ Paperhead
^ – w/ Herbcraft
Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Evan Blum, Jacob Weaver and Rob Monsma, the Louisville, KY-based trio Murals was formed over 10 years ago while its members were high schoolers. As the story goes, the trio of Blum, Weaver and Monsma experienced several dips and turns with the members of the band eventually returning to their hometown to write and record music in an abandoned childcare center, located on a hill in a shady part of town — the sort of place the band notes, where acid trips and all-day jam sessions would go hand-in-hand.

With the release of “Violet City Lantern,” the album title track and first single off Violet City Lantern, and a subsequent stop at this past fall’s CMJ Festival, the Louisville-based trio quickly received national attention. “Long Bridge,” Violet City Lantern‘s latest single is a slow-burning and moody bit of psychedelia that sounds as though it draws from The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” The Beatles,  The Beach Boys and 70s AM radio rock as shimmering guitar chords played with gentle amounts of reverb and wah wah pedal are paired with swirling and ethereal keyboards, gentle yet propulsive drumming and a weary baritone. The gorgeous track slowly unfolds towards the listener in a way that evokes waking from an intensely vivid dream.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic New Video for Dumbo Gets Mad’s Trippy New Single “Andromedian Girl”

Dumbo Gets Mad is an Italian-born, Los Angeles-based psych pop duo that formed during the summer of 2010. They wrote the material that would eventually comprise their full-length, 2011 debut Elephants At The Door in […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Summer Heart’s 60s Psych Pop Inspired Sound

Summer Heart is the solo dream pop recording project of the Swedish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Alexander. Summer Heart has received attention for a nostalgic, 60s psych pop-leaning, lo-fi sound that bears a subtle resemblance […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Over the last few years, Montreal has developed a reputation for a rather vital, intriguing and diverse electronic music scene as acts such as Grimes, BRAIDS, Majical Cloudz, Jef Barbara and others. Seoul, comprised of […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Bei Yan (vocals, synth) and Tony Bertaccini (drums), the Portland, OR-based drum and synth duo Wishyunu (pronounced wish-u-new) originally began as a noise and improv project back in 2008, and over the years […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Surrender The Spirit and Surf Rock Is Dead at Piano’s 1/29/15

Surrender The Spirit and Surf Rock Is Dead Piano’s January 29, 2015 Over the last few years, I haven’t frequented Piano’s as much as I once did. As it has turned out, a lot of […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Mild High Club is the creative mastermind of Alexander Bretin, a jazz-trained musician, who specializes in a hazy, and woozy psychedelic pop sound comprised of cascading and shimmering synth chords, gently undulating bass, vocals fed […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Needle Points, Twincest, Paperhaus and Zula at Palisades 12/10/14

Needle Points, Twincest, Paperhaus and Zula Palisades December 10, 2014 With 2014 coming to a close, there will be a bit of looking back at the year that was – a year that managed to […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Cochlear Kill is the musical project and brain child of Mot Bollox, a multi-instrumentalist with a ton of effects pedals, a lot of free time and home studio equipment. Heavily inspired by shoegazer rock, Bollox’s […]