JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Sheryl Crow’s 64th birthday.
Tag: singer/songwriters
Live Footage: Folk Bitch Trio Performs “Foreign Bird” at Vevo Studios
Rising Melbourne/Naarm-based trio Folk Bitch Trio — Gracie Sinclair (she/her), Jeanie Pilkington (she/her) and Heide Peverelle (they/them) — released their critically applauded full-length debut, Now Would Be A Good Time earlier this year through Jagjaguwar.
Now Would Be A Good Time’s material sounds warmly familiar, as its built upon the foundation of music the trio have loved throughout their lives — gnarled Americana, classic rock and piquant and clear-eyed balladry. And yet, the songs are simultaneously modern and youthful with the album’s song thematically touching on dissociative daydreams, galling breakups, sexual fantastics, media overload and the petty resentments and humiliations of being in your early 20s in the 2020s.
The Aussie trio supported the album with two sold-out London shows and a run of the international festival circuit, with sets at Green Man and All Points East. The album landed at #32 on the UK Official Record Store charts, Top 3 on the Aussie charts and earned 4 ARIA nominations. Building upon a growing profile, the trio’s cover of Kings of Leon‘s “Sex on Fire” on Triple J has amassed over 100,000 views. And the trio will be closing out the year with a lengthy international tour, which just started earlier this week. The tour features a November run of North America dates that includes a November 11, 2025 stop at Baby’s All Right. (As always, the remaining tour dates are below.)
But in the meantime, the acclaimed Aussie trio shared the VEVO live session of Now Would Be A Good Time album track “Foreign Bird.” It’s a gorgeous song that’s earnest and lived-in — and the trio’s harmonies had me stop dead in my tracks.
New Video: Amadou & Mariam Share Swooning “L’amour à la folie”
Over the course of their almost 50-year career run together, the iconic and beloved Malian duo Amadou & Mariam have had an illustrious career that saw them take the Malian blues that made them a household name in Africa and opened it up to rock, hip-hop and EDM/dance influences, which led to spreading their country’s culture and beloved sounds, as well as the pair’s unique joie de vivre. “We’ve always dreamed of tearing down walls and opening people’s ears to new sounds so the whole world can discover and appreciate Malian music,” Amadou & Mariam says.
Late last year, the pair released the compilation album La Vie Est Belle, an album that highlighted their legacy as one of Africa’s most famous duos and the massive influence they’ve had while paving the way for an exciting, new generation of African artists, who have begun to dominate the Western mainstream.
The legendary Malian duo have also acted as Afro-pop ambassadors, who have collaborated with some of the biggest names of Western mainstream music, including U2, Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, Sofi Tucker, BLOND:ISH, Santigold, Akon, TV on the Radio, Damon Albarn and David Gilmour — with their seven studio albums selling over one million records globally. Adding to a globally recognized profile, the duo made the rounds of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury. They’ve also performed at The World Cup, NPR’s Tiny Desk and last year’s Paris Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, where they covered Serge Gainsbourg‘s “Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je Me’n Vais.” And lastly, they made the run of the late night TV circuits of both the US and UK.
The duo’s final album together, L’amour à la folie is slated for an October 24, 2025 release. Written and recorded together over the past seven years, the acclaimed and beloved Malian duo’s soon-to-be released eighth album conveys the duo’s raw joy through incandescent, exuberant music that perfectly complements their messages of love and unity — and the hope of a peaceful world in which diversity is celebrated and championed. And with love with a capital L as the driving force, music and fuel and sharing as the spark, the duo’s radiant power continues to shine on their final album.
Final mixes of the album’s material were completed last winter. They shared a deep excitement about the album’s release in October. But sadly, Amadou Bagayoko died back in April. It’s Mariam Doumbia’s wish, after the mourning period, to return to stages and perform the album she spent seven years working on with her beloved while celebrating the music and life her and beloved created.
L’amour à la folie‘s latest single, album title track “L’amour à la folie,” is a defiantly upbeat and urgent declaration of a swooning and ridiculously passionate love, featuring a propulsive and funky Afro pop-meets-dance floor groove, driving polyrhythm and Bagayako’s woozy guitar riff paired with the duo’s unerring knack for incredibly catchy hooks and their imitable harmonizing. And at its core, “L’amour á la folie,”is a much-needed joy bomb in bleak, desperate times that reminds all of us that life isn’t worth a damn without a love that drives you mad.
The accompanying video features footage of the pair performing on stages across the world, bursts of behind the scenes footage from video and album art shoots, small moments of families together, behind the scenes footage of the duo together and more.
New Audio: Tan Cologne Team Up With Trentemøller on a Minimalist and Dreamy Rework of “In Resin”
Enigmatic Taos, NM-based duo Tan Cologne — Lauren Green and Marissa Macias — released their third album Unknown Beyond last month through Labrador Records. Unlike their previously released material, Unknown Beyond sees Green and Macias reaching for the heavens and an intangible greater existence; the infinite and unexplainable while embracing the beauty of timeless uncertainty.
Written, performed and recorded entirely by the duo at their Taos, New Mexico-based home, the album found the pair seeking solitude and retreat as they attempted to come to terms with the personal loss of family, friends and childhood homes — within a relatively short period of time. The album’s creative process quickly became a therapeutic outlet for grieving, dealing, changing and understanding new life transitions and ways of being, with each track being a part of the story of the entire album.
The album’s material is centered around a more spiritual process. “We looked for signs and signals during the recording process” the duo says in press notes. “If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.”
Interweaving and layering hypnotic beats, hazy shoegazer textures, abstract live drum patterns and sounds of searching for signals — of comfort and communication — from the invisible web, Unknown Beyond may arguably be their most immersive and emotive work to date.
In the lead up to the album’s I written about three of the album’s previously release singles, “Cloud of Mirrors,” “Infinity“ and “Cool Star.”
The duo recently teamed up with Trentemøller on a reworking of Unknown Beyond closing track “In Resin.” The album track is a slow-burning and hazy tune featuring swirling, almost painterly, reverb-drenched, shoegazer guitar textures. While recalling A Storm In Heaven, the arrangement serves as a lush bed for Green’s and Macias’ dreamily ethereal harmonies.
The Trentemøller reworking retains the duo’s dreamily ethereal harmonies but replaces most of the shoegazer guitar textures with a looping, twinkling and eerily beautiful piano figure, which emphasizes the mysterious vibe of the song while giving it an old-timey feel and sound.
“In Resin” encapsulates the entire project thematically, as well as the duo’s experiences over the lat few years. “It talks about being everything once and then being it all again, and living several lives at the same time,” the band says. “‘In Resin’ is a special track that we spiritually found ourselves oscillating between leaving it as a rare gem to discover on the album or presenting as a focus,” they continue. “We opted for the mystery, but Trentemøller dove into it.”
The band expands, “A few years ago, Trentemøller connected with us and our sound. Now into the present and future, he offered to rework one of our tracks from our new album and selected ‘In Resin.’ He finished the new interpretation while we were on tour together in Europe. We feel our music is a communication and we are honored to continue ‘In Resin’’s sonic conversation with Trentemøller.”
New Video: Tan Cologne Returns with Meditative and Trance-Inducing “Infinity”
Enigmatic Taos, NM-based duo Tan Cologne — Lauren Green and Marissa Macias — have released work rooted in terrestrial and earthen landscapes: Their debut, 2020’s Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico explored the topography of cultures and subcultures on the surface of New Mexico. Their sophomore album, 2022’s Earth Visions of Water Spaces was inspired by past, present and future water and waterways, embodying the power of water and how it has shaped our planet. 2023’s Pescetrullo (soundscapes) captured a series of on-site instrumental and field recordings made in the remote architectural Pescetrullo in Puglia, Italy, immortalizing the contrasts of ancient buildings, new bold structures, insects, and lapping water of the surrounding environment.
The New Mexico-based duo’s forthcoming third album Unknown Beyond is slated for a June 20, 2025 release through Labrador Records. Unlike their previously released material, Unknown Beyond sees Green and Macias reaching for the heavens and an intangible greater existence; the infinite and unexplainable while embracing the beauty of timeless uncertainty.
Written, performed and recorded entirely by the duo at their Taos, New Mexico-based home, the album found the pair seeking solitude and retreat as they attempted to come to terms with the personal loss of family, friends and childhood homes — within a relatively short period of time. The album’s creative process quickly became a therapeutic outlet for grieving, dealing, changing and understanding new life transitions and ways of being, with each track being a part of the story of the entire album.
The album reportedly sees Green and Macias seeking a more spiritual process. “We looked for signs and signals during the recording process” they say. “If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.”
Interweaving and layering hypnotic beats, hazy shoegazer textures, abstract live drum patterns and sounds of searching for signals — of comfort and communication — from the invisible web, Unknown Beyond may arguably be their most immersive and emotive work to date.
Last month, I wrote about “Cloud of Mirrors,” a woozily meditative track, featuring swirling and painterly, shoegazer-like guitar textures and Green’s and Macias’ soaring harmonies ethereally floating over a bed of pulsating, metronomic-like drum machine click. Sonically, “Cloud of Mirrors” marks a sonic and thematic shift for the New Mexico-based outfit as they embrace a richer blend of electronic elements to their sound, all while seemingly recalling A Storm in Heaven and Souvlaki-era shoegaze.
“’Cloud of Mirrors’ is about life happening to you and having to deal with whatever is handed to you – a chemtrail above, being ‘over it,’ knowing we are all interconnected and a part of the disaster and the beauty,” the duo explain. “The idea that we are a mirrored image of the sky – manmade or natural, or even simulated. A reflection of everything around you being internally present.”
Unknown Beyond‘s latest single “Infinity” is a trance-inducing, meditative song anchored around gently swirling, reverb-based shoegazer guitar textures serving as a lush and hazy soundscape for the pair’s dreamy, reverb-soaked vocals. The rack ruminates on shifts in form as we move through life — and the untold end that all physical beings will inevitably face.
“‘Infinity’ is about an endless drift into the infinite,” the band explains. “The lyrics ‘All pass through known’ evoke the comfort of knowing we all enter and leave, though the definitive dimension is the unknown beyond.” The duo continue, “We understand the passage through physical form, and take into account the infinite depth outside of our comprehension.”
Directed and shot by the duo in Taos, the equally meditative, accompanying video for “Infinity” follows their friend Ricardo de Jesus Tejada, walking around Taos for a stop to check in on his horse Lupita, before heading back home.
“Our music video circles a day or dissolving timeline of a man on a walk and how he finds himself in a meditative drift with a horse, and then returns to the beginning and also the end,” the duo explain.
New Video: Tan Cologne Shares Hazy, “A Storm in Heaven”-like “Cloud of Mirrors”
Enigmatic Taos, NM-based duo Tan Cologne — Lauren Green and Marissa Macias — have released work rooted in terrestrial and earthen landscapes: Their debut, 2020’s Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico explored the topography of cultures and subcultures on the surface of New Mexico. Their sophomore album, 2022’s Earth Visions of Water Spaces was inspired by past, present and future water and waterways, embodying the power of water and how it has shaped our planet. 2023’s Pescetrullo (soundscapes) captured a series of on-site instrumental and field recordings made in the remote architectural Pescetrullo in Puglia, Italy, immortalizing the contrasts of ancient buildings, new bold structures, insects, and lapping water of the surrounding environment.
The New Mexico-based duo’s forthcoming third album Unknown Beyond is slated for a June 20, 2025 release through Labrador Records. Unlike their previously released material, Unknown Beyond sees Green and Macias reaching for the heavens and an intangible greater existence; the infinite and unexplainable while embracing the beauty of timeless uncertainty.
Written, performed and recorded entirely by the duo at their Taos, New Mexico-based home, the album found the pair seeking solitude and retreat as they attempted to come to terms with the personal loss of family, friends and childhood homes — within a relatively short period of time. The album’s creative process quickly became a therapeutic outlet for grieving, dealing, changing and understanding new life transitions and ways of being, with each track being a part of the story of the entire album.
The album reportedly sees Green and Macias seeking a more spiritual process. “We looked for signs and signals during the recording process” they say. “If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.”
Interviewing and layering hypnotic beats, hazy shoegeazer textures, abstract live drum patterns and sounds of searching for signals — of comfort and communication — from the invisible web, Unknown Beyond may arguably be their most immersive and emotive work to date.
Unknown Beyond‘s latest single, the woozy yet meditative “Cloud of Mirrors” features swirling and painterly, shoegazer-like guitar textures and Green’s and Macias’ soaring harmonies ethereally floating over a bed of pulsating, metronomic-like drum machine click. Sonically, “Cloud of Mirrors” marks a sonic and thematic shift for the New Mexico-based outfit as they embrace a richer blend of electronic elements to their sound, all while recalling A Storm in Heaven and Souvlaki-era shoegaze.
“’Cloud of Mirrors’ is about life happening to you and having to deal with whatever is handed to you – a chemtrail above, being ‘over it,’ knowing we are all interconnected and a part of the disaster and the beauty,” the duo explain. “The idea that we are a mirrored image of the sky – manmade or natural, or even simulated. A reflection of everything around you being internally present.”
Fittingly, the accompanying video is a hazy in-studio performance featuring seemingly endless reflections and refractions, as though looking at the duo performing through a mirror.
New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Kelly Finnigan Teams Up with Chicago Soul Legend Renaldo Domino on a Deep Soul Cover
Acclaimed singer/songwriter, musician, producer and Monophonics frontman Kelly Finnigan teamed up with Chicago‘s Renaldo Domino for a cover of Buffalo-based duo Samson & Delilah‘s 1967 song “Keep Me In Mind.” The Finnigan and Domino cover, which features an All-Star cast of some of the soul scene’s best players was recorded entirely to tape in studios between the Bay Area, Chicago and Ohio during the recording sessions for the JOVM mainstay’s most recent solo album, last year’s A Lover Was Born.
The Finnigan and Domino rendition sees the pair and their collaborators tightening the original’s groove just a bit while retaining the original’s spirit and feel in a remarkably loving and straightforward period specific manner. And much like the original, the song’s mid-tempo groove-driven arrangement serves as a lush and funky bed for the pair’s uncannily soulful harmonizing, which in some way rekindles memories of Sam and Dave, and the like.
The standalone single was released digitally through Colemine Records. The 7″ 45RPM vinyl will be available on May 23, 2025. You can pre-order the vinyl or stream on your favorite DSP here: https://colemine.lnk.to/clmn260