Tag: Radiohead Kid A

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Officially formed in Athens, GA during the winter of 2014 and comprised of primary songwriter Gresham Cash (vocals, guitar), Wes Gregory (drums) and Connor Sabula (bass), the indie rock/psych rock trio Oak House have developed a reputation for an uncompromisingly weird sound that effortlessly meshes elements of melodic and pop-leaning indie rock, psych rock, experimental rock and grunge rock paired with contemplative and visceral lyrics that explore and investigate life’s inevitable conflicts; bur interestingly enough, Cash’s songwriting is largely influenced by classical music, jazz, Eastern melodic structure and contemporary, minimalist instrumental music, which unsurprisingly gives their overall sound a cinematic air.

Now, if you had been frequenting this site earlier this year, the Athens, GA-based trio’s sophomore effort Hot or Mood was recorded at Chase Park Transduction with Drew Vandenberg, who’s worked with of Montreal, Toro y Moi, Kishi Bashi, Deerhunter and Mothers and the album reportedly finds the band accurately capturing their live sound and energy — and as I wrote of the rapidly shifting album single “Cut That Out,” the track managed to capture the narrator’s vacillating thoughts and emotions with a shaky, unsteady almost anxiety-inducing accuracy. As the band’s Gresham Cash explains in press notes ” I wanted to craft a picture of dreams by using frenetic, shifting imagery with a blend of hopeful nostalgia muddied by sadness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc. Also, I felt that anxiety, depression and suicide are things that not only influence us directly, but also, those around us; hence, the chorus, ‘We’re all responsible for someone else.’ The ending is the feeling of the dream unraveling combined with the feeling that you are living within someone else’s dream: unsettling to say the least. Your only defense against the confusion and discomfort is like swatting at an irksome fly that keeps buzzing in your ears: ‘Cut that out.’”

Hot or Mood‘s latest single “Esque” continues in a similar vein as its predecessor, thanks to a rapidly shifting structure that touches upon ambient and minimalist electronics, anthemic power chord-based indie rock and expansive psych rock — and while sounding as though it were influenced by OK Computer and Kid A-era Radiohead; but pay close attention to the lyrics, as the song’s narrator at one point ruminates on the relativistic nature of time, in which past, present and future all co-exist simultaneously as the song feels like swirling, feverish and anxious dream.

The band will be embarking on a tour throughout next month and it’ll include an August 20, 2017 stop at The Bowery Electric. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates: 

August 10 – Athens, GA @ Caledonia Lounge
August 11 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
August 12 – Tampa, FL @ New World Brewery
August 14 – Raleigh, NC @ The Pour House
August 15 – Durham, NC @ The Cave
August 16 – Harrisonburg, VA @ Golden Pony
August 17 – Washington, DC @ TBA
August 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ TBA
August 20 – New York, NY @ The Bowery Electric
August 21 – Fairfield, CT @ Fairfield Theatre
August 22 – Syracuse, NY @ Funk N Waffles
August 23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Black Forge Coffeehouse
August 24 – Huntington, WV @ V Club
August 25 – Lexington, KY @ Green Lantern
August 26 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House Revival
August 27 – Nashville, TN @ Fond Object Records

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vienna, Austria’s Hearts Hearts Return with a Brooding and Artistic Meditation on Identity, Self-Invention and Perspective

“AAA” is the Austrian quintet’s latest single off Young and sonically it’s a song that nods at Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief-era Radiohead as shimmering guitar chords, stuttering drum programming, swirling electronics, twinkling keys and a lush string arrangement with Österle’s tender and aching falsetto expressing a deep yearning for more while possessing an underlying uncertainty at its core. Interestingly enough as the band’s frontman David Österle explained about both the song and its video treatment: “I think that the world is a place, where we can dare to pretend. ‘AAA’ deals with that basic feature of the human condition. We fake it till we make it, and thereby go (at least sometimes) astray in the plethora of metamorphoses in that societal masquerade. I think that by assuming different roles we ourselves are fulfilling the requirements of the economy, demanding excessive flexibility and changeability. As a result we all feel like faceless puppets sometimes.

“We wanted to make a video that visually underscores this figuration of identity as a permanent process of self-inventions. The video is much about showing people in different perspectives. The images are blurry, sometimes they are overlapping and merging together seamlessly. What the lens captures, is actually the performance of a performance, the play in a play.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Harsh and Haunting Sounds and Visuals for Boogarins “Cuerdo”

Much like the album’s previously release single “Tempo,” the album’s latest single “Cuerdo” is a deeply contemplative song; however, the dreamy new single sounds as though it draws from Kid A and Amnesiac-era Radiohead and Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd as reverb-heavy guitar chords, a subtle yet gorgeous horn arrangement with the vocals at times feeling peacefully submerged, almost entombed within the dreamy and slow-burning mix. Interestingly, as the band’s guitarist Benke Ferraz notes, the song focuses on the feeling of not belonging and being in a situation in which you can’t express yourself — perhaps out of danger if you’re part of a minority group.

Directed by Ricardo Spencer, the recently released video for “Cuerdo” reveals the haunting and harsh beauty of nature as it depicts a group of buzzards descending upon a dead cow at various angles — a cinematic wide screen which has every figure involved look like microscopic dots before quickly panning in to see the vultures eating the dead cow in super slow motion. As the band’s Ferraz expressed in press notes, the vultures seemed to represent quite a bit for anyone who feels for minorities of any stripe and how our especially conservative — and seemingly sadistic — societies and media outlets deal with them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Dreamy Visuals for Face + Heel’s “Pier Video”

Comprised of Luke Taylor and Sinead McMillan, Welsh duo Face + Heel have had their previously released work praised by several major media outlets and blogs including Hillydilly, Pigeons and Planes, The 405, Dummy, The Line of Best Fit, Notion and Crack Magazine […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Fever the Ghost’s Psychedelic, New Single Channels Radiohead

Fever the Ghost’s soon-to-be released full-length effort, Zirconium Meconium  slated for a September 25 release through Complicated Game Records in the US and Heavenly Records in the UK comes on the heels of their critically praised […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Much ink has been spilled throughout the lengthy and prolific career of author, musician and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, especially for his role as the forefather of Blaxploitation with his landmark film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

The Los Angeles-based vocals Evan Mellows grew up in a home in which his folks listened to the work of the legendary Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross and others; however, as he got older, […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Britt Teusink (vocals, programming, synthesizer), Eric Grantham (drums, programing) and Gage Gilmore (bass, synthesizer) formed deadCAT in a moldy basement in the Edgewood section of Atlanta, GA back in 2011, as a sort of weird offshoot from A. Grimes. And since […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

January 21st will mark the Stateside release of Rave Tapes, the eighth full-length effort from the Glasglow Scotland-based Mogwai. “Remurdered” is the first single from the forthcoming album and it reveals a band that continually makes […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Hailing form London, UK and  Oxford, UK respectively Luca Santucci and Ben Fitzgerald, a.k.a Stubborn Heart got a lot of attention last year for a then unidentified white label 12,“ followed by the Need Someone EP which […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Rachel Mason and the Use, and Little Band of Sailors at the RH Gallery 12/18/12

Last week was a pretty busy week as I had covered several shows that week, including an interesting little event at the RH Gallery down in SoHo – Rachel Mason performing material with electronic artist […]