Tag: S/T

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their debut album Coco Beware and their sophomore self-titled album, New York-based quintet Caveman — comprised of Matthew Iwanusa (vocals, guitar), James Carbonetti (guitar), Jeff Berrall (bass), Sam Hopkins (keys) and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Prescott-Clark — have developed a profile locally and nationally for a moody and gorgeous guitar and synth-based sound that at times owed a sonic debt to Peter Gabriel, U2 and others. And as a result the quintet has toured with the world, playing shows with the likes of The War On Drugs, Weezer and Jeff Tweedy, and they’ve received praise not just from this site, where they’ve become mainstays but from a number of major media outlets.

Now, it’s been some time since we’ve heard from them but the band’s long-anticipated third full-length effort Otero War is slated for release this summer. And the album’s first single “Never Going Back” is arguably the most upbeat and anthemic song the band has released to date, while sonically sounding as though it drew from early 80s Bruce Springsteen (in particular, think of “Dancing In The Dark“) but with Carbonetti’s gorgeous guitar work paired with soaring synths and Iwanusa’s plaintive vocals, while dealing with themes that Springsteen would have easily written about back then — figuring out the complications of love, desperately wanting to escape a humdrum and bland life, of recognizing that at a certain point, your decisions loom larger and larger over your life and more. It’s powerfully universal and speaks to things we’ve all felt and known at some point in our own lives.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Introducing the 60s Channeling Psych Rock Sound of Heron Oblivion

Comprised of Meg Baird (drums and vocals), Noel V. Harmonson (guitar), Charlie Saufley (guitar) and Ethan Miller (bass), the San Francisco-based psych rock quartet Heron Oblivion can trace their origins to several different musical projects and […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

 

Originally begun as a solo side project from her time with Vivian Girls and All Saints Day, Katy Goodman’s current musical project La Sera has developed a national profile with three critically applauded albums, her self titled debut, Sees the Light and Hour of the Dawn, which were released through Hardly Art Records.  Goodman’s last album, 2014’s Hour of the Dawn was very much a punk-inspired album; however, with the release of “High Notes,” the first single from her forthcoming album, Music For Listening To Music To reveals an artist, who has gone through both personal and artistic transitions. Sonically and structurally, the song reveals that Goodman has returned to an elegant and solid simplicity — it pairs the sort of shimmering guitar chords of The Smiths and the propulsive, old-school chugging rhythm of Johnny Cash (in particular, think of “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Jackson” and countless others) with Goodman’s wistfully ethereal coos. And interestingly enough La Sera has added personnel to flesh out the project’s sound — Goodman’s guitarist, cowriter and husband Todd Wisenbaker, who is probably best known as a member of Listening To Music To‘s producer Ryan Adams‘ backing band.

Of course, “High Notes” makes a vital connection between punk, post-punk and renegade country that countless others have done before while possessing a sneering, real life irony that many of us have faced before — after a breakup, taking the high road not because you actually believe that it’s the best thing but for appearances and because you want to get the last word. It’s probably the most honest and heartfelt sentiment I’ve come across in quite some time.

 

 

 

 
Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Brandi Carlile’s “The Things I Regret” Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater

Ravensdale, WA-born and Seattle, WA-based singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood — when she was 8 she performed Johnny Cash‘s “Tennessee Flat Top Box” with her mother […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of a group of high school classmates and friends, the Hershey, PA-based quartet The Ocean Blue quickly rose to national prominence with the critically applauded release of their debut effort through Sire Records back in 1989 — and of course, that also meant major radio and MTV airplay. The quartet went on to release two more well-received records through Sire, Cerulean and Beneath the Rhythm and Sound and a fourth album See the Ocean Blue through Mercury/PolyGram before leaving the major label game in the late 90s, which arguably made them one of the earliest and better known acts to do so.

In the 2000s (and that phrase just looks and sounds utterly doesn’t strange doesn’t it?), the band released several independent releases including Davy Jones Locker and Waterworks before going on a lengthy hiatus, which ended with the 2013 release of Ultramarine through Korda Records, a Minneapolis-based (where the band  cooperative label that the band helped launch.

Recently, the band re-issued their first three Sire Records releases on vinyl — for the first time in over 20 years — and to celebrate the occasion the band played a small handful of special shows playing material from those albums live, to celebrate the occasion.  And from what I hear, the band is working on a full-length of new material, slated for release sometime next year.

But in the meantime, the band shared a lost and previously unreleased single from the Sire Records days, “City Traffic” which consists of shimmering guitar chords played through gentle layers of reverb, soaring organ chords, propulsive drumming and plaintive vocals in a song that sounds as though it possesses elements of The Smiths and 120 Minutes-era alternative rock thanks to its anthemic hooks.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Christine and the Queens’ Incredibly Slick Video for “Tilted”

Born in Nantes, France singer/songwriter Heloise Letissier studied theater and art, before relocating to Paris, where she completed her studies. While in London, Letissier became deeply inspired by the drag queen scene originating from that […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Gorgeous and Atmospheric, New Single from Louisville’s Twin Limb

Comprised of Lacey Guthrie (accordion, keys, vocals), Maryliz Bender (drums, guitar, vocals), Kevin “Twinderella” Ratterman (guitar) and Sara Pitt (credited with “everything you see”). the Louisville, KY-based trio Twin Limb have purposely shrouded themselves in mystery […]

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sylvan Esso’s Re-Working of “H.S.K.T.” for Moog Sound Lab

Over the past 100 years, there have been a handful of people that every musician and every music fan should hold revered, as they’ve managed to change how the music we love sounds, how its […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Boulevards Cements His Reputation for Funky, Club-Banging Pop With “Honesty”

http://www.npr.org/player/embed/442320383/442326741 Boulevards is the solo recording project of the North Carolina-based Jamil Rashad. Now if you’ve been following JOVM over the past couple of months, you may be familiar with Rashad — but for those new […]

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Taut and Anxious, New Video for Viet Cong’s “Bunker Buster”

Over the past year, the Calgary, Alberta-based quartet of Viet Cong, comprised of Matt Flegel (bass, vocals), Scott Munro (guitar), Daniel Christiansen (guitar) and Mike Wallace (drums) have received quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere for […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Check Out M&M’s Funky, Club Banging Remix of Tuxedo’s “The Right Time”

Tuxedo is the collaborative project of Mayer Hawthorne, one of this era’s shamefully unheralded vocalists and  Jake One, a Grammy nominated artist and producer. The collaboration can trace its origins back to 2006 when the duo started to exchange […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: METZ on Seattle’s KEXP

With the release of their self-titled debut effort in 2012, the Toronto-based trio Metz received both national and international attention for a sound that may remind listeners to Bleach and In Utereo-era Nirvana, A Place to Bury Strangers and Japandroids as their material is […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Carroll’s Dreamy, Shoegaze Rock-based New Single “Green Acres”

Comprised of Brian Harlow (vocals), Charlie Rudoy (drums), Max Kulicke (guitar) and Charles McClung (bass), the Minneapolis, MN-based quartet Carroll can trace their origins to when its founding members and college classmates Harlow and Rudoy decided to move in together in […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Boulevards, Funky, New Party Jam “Sanity”

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past few weeks you may have remembered coming across a post on Boulevards, the solo recording project of Jamil Rashad. As the son of renowned, jazz radio DJ, Jamil Rashad […]