Tag: synth pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Shudder To Think’s Punk Rock-like Take on Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do”

Back in 2024 Shudder To Think — currently Craig Wedren (vocals), Nathan Larson (guitar), Clint Walsh (guitar), Jherek Bischoff (bass) and Adam Wade (drums) — celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1994 effort, Pony Express Record, their Epic Records debut, which followed several releases on Dischord Records.

After the initial release of Pony Express Record, the band dove into the world of scoring films and creating music for soundtracks with the 1998 releases of Jesse Peretz’s First Love, Last Rites, Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine. Shudder to Think’s Wedren and Larson have gone to be prolific film and television with Wedren working on YELLOWJACKETS, Wet Hot American Summer, School of Rock, Laurel Canyon and more; and Larson working on Our Idiot Brother, The Skeleton Twins, Juliet, Naked, the High Fidelity TV series and a list of others.

Last year, the band made their first live performances in over a decade and released the “Thirst Walk”/”Playback” 7 inch, which drew on the band’s classic, beloved sound — melodic, unpredictable and unmistakably their own. The 7 inch vinyl sold out quickly and has been repressed and will be available for their upcoming live shows in Philadelphia, NYC, Los Angeles and at select record stories. As always, tour dates are below, y’all.

Along with the tour, Shudder to Think will be releasing the three-song Who Sent You EP on Friday through Dischord Records. The EP is the first new project from the band from in almost 30 years. The EP will include the previously released, fairly autobiographical EP title track “Who Sent You” and their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do” off 1984’s Some Great Reward.

The original version of “Something To Do” was built with plinking synths and early 1980s industrial clang and clatter beneath Dave Gahan’s youthfully earnest and yearning vocal expressing boredom, pent-up frustration, horniness from the perspective of a suburban teenager. The Shudder To Think Take digs deep into nostalgia and taps into that same boredom, frustration, horniness of their own youth and of their love of Depeche Mode while pairing it with a snarling punk rock arrangement. Their take adds a bit more danger while reminding the listener of what it felt like as a bored teenager trying to make your own fun — before the weight of consequences got too big.

The band says this about their cover: “For some of us, the album Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode represents the pinnacle of their brilliance and creativity,

“Not that they didn’t make insanely wonderful music – singles and albums both – after that, but SGR was the crescendo of their first phase, where indelible pop hooks collided with kid-in-candy-store synth experiments, and impossible yearning fumbled with the bra clasps of the blackest bedroom malaise. After that, their albums became more mature and refined, less messy.

“There’s a garish audacity to Some Great Reward that perfectly soundtracked a kind of suburban teenager, wild on the inside, about to burst, misunderstood, romantic as fuck. 

“The song ‘Something To Do’ kicks off the album, and it’s a semi-forgotten (relative to other DM singles), under-appreciated banger about being young, angsty, bored, and horny (“put your leather boots on”) in an old, run down industrial town. It’s about being miserable and making your own fun – dangerous and thrilling, but in that young way where consequences haven’t yet revealed themselves (those would come on later DM records). 

When we were making the new Shudder album, “Something To Do” came on the (satellite) radio and jogged Craig’s sense-memory back to sixteen, on a family trip to Israel, in love and hate with everyone and everything, candy-flipping the cassette in his Walkman from Some Great Reward to XTC’s English Settlement and the great Dukes Of Stratosphere.[SIC] A girl named Robin and a girl named Julie..

“Anyway, we HAD to cover it. 

So, minutes after finishing basic tracks for the final song on the album, we quickly learned its structure and let it rip, maybe three takes, no corrections. 

Our pal (and Craig’s brother-in-law), the great Thomas Lennon, happened to be visiting and stood in a circle with us while we threw it down. Tom’s a big Depeche Mode fan and a big Shudder To Think fan, so his energy and enthusiasm completed the circuit and gave us just the energy we needed. “

“Often at the end of a project there’s magic gunk left at the bottom of the fuel tank, like potent resin at the bottom of the bowl. This was that.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, Dave Stewart!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart’s 74th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Marble Returns with Bouncy, New Order-like “It Always Comes To Me”

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Marble creative mastermind Chris Stewart will be releasing his fifth Black Marble album, Life in Small Spaces through Sacred Bones Records on Friday. The album, which is Stewart’s first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, is an album of clear-eyed commentary and analysis of the music industry as a whole, a discussion of authenticity and a heartfelt letter to all the independent creatives out in the world.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things,” Stewart says. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, ‘will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?’ The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

Drawing from early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines and live drum samples, the album’s material sees Stewart eschewing his usual wall of synths-driven sound for a more live sound. 

The album will include the previously released “Jim Carol New Year,” and “Anything,” and its last pre-album release single “It Always Comes To Me,” “It Always Comes To Me” continues a run of decidedly upbeat, hook-driven tunes while arguably being the most New Order-like songs I’ve heard so far. The song’s narrator is a roguish sort. who seemingly can get away with things others can’t through a mix of charm and deceit. But whether or not, the narrator is having fun with it all or is complaining about how easy it all is or has even acknowledged that at some point everyone’s luck runs out is ultimately up to the listener. And on some level, the song asks the listener, “if you can get away with it, would you?”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Martin Gore!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Depeche Mode founder Martin Gore’s 65th birthday.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Marble Returns with Propulsive “Anything”

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Marble creative mastermind Chris Stewart will be releasing his fifth Black Marble album, Life in Small Spaces through Sacred Bones Records on August 21, 2026. The album, which is Stewart’s first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, is an album of clear-eyed commentary and analysis of the music industry as a whole, a discussion of authenticity and a heartfelt letter to all the independent creatives out in the world.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things,” Stewart says. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, ‘will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?’ The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

Drawing from early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines and live drum samples, the album’s material sees Stewart eschewing his usual wall of synths-driven sound for a more live sound. 

The album will include the previously released “Jim Carol New Year,” a decidedly upbeat, 1980s New Wave-inspired track and its latest single, “Anything.” Anchored around an angular and propulsive rhythmic pulse and shimmering and squiggling bursts of guitar, “Anything” manages to channel early New Order and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! and Freedom of Choice-era DEVO but instead of frustrated carnal desires, the song has a decidedly domestic bent. It’s not exactly content, but it has a sense of humor about daily annoyances and irritations of friends and loved ones, the frustrations of constant stimulation and instant gratification when it seems you can’t find either. And at its core, the song points out it’s difficult to connect with people, when most folks are lookin to bail on people for the smallest possible thing.

“‘Anything’ is basically a bedroom pop version of ‘Satisfaction’ but it trades the carnal undertones for more of a domestic pastiche. With lyrics about leaving the bedroom window open, casual druggy friends popping by at all hours and other relationship annoyances, the center of the struggle is less about finding temporary satisfaction but that today’s glut of options and opportunities gives every relationship an expiration date, every encounter an easy off ramp and every minor annoyance a reason to move on,” Black Marble’s Chris Stewart says. “The sentiment is the same from those old days, lack of fulfillment, but it’s due to modern circumstances. It feels like we have every option at our fingertips but we’re somehow losing the ability to connect.”

Directed by Scott Kiernan, the accompanying video was shot at New York’s Various/Artists and captures the song’s themes of overstimulation by featuring a rapid-fire barrage of vibrant images with a meditative and occasionally bemused Stewart flickers throughout the visual noise and chaos.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Nouvelle Vague and Flavia Coelho Tackle Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again”

Founded by Marc Collins and the late Olivier Libaux back in 2003, Nouvelle Vague was initially conceived as a one-off tribute to post-punk songwriting in a Bossa nova style. 2004’s self-titled debut, which saw them establish their unique fusion of melancholy post-punk, Bossa nova and French re-interpretational approach, unexpectedly achieved global acclaim. Since then, Nouveau Vague has become a global phenomenon.

Their 10th album, A Date with Depeche Mode is slated for an October 30, 2026 release through Kwaidan Records/[PIAS] Recordings. And as you can probably tell, the album sees the French outfit tackling the work of pioneering British electronic outfit Depeche Mode. The album’s second single, “Never Let Me Down Again” feat. Brazilian artist Flavia Coehlo was according to the a conscious risk, because her voice manages to carry the full light of Rio. The original version is a brooding and hypnotic tune built on an intertwined promise and threat.

Coehlo and Nouvelle Vague manage to craft a bold and unique interpretation of a beloved song that doesn’t betray the spirit and intention of the original. The summer breeze and sunshine of Nouveau Vague’s rendition is superficial; the song is underpinned by a tense, brooding unease. Goths at the beach, perhaps?

Seriously though, Nouveau Vague’s work points out the melancholy of English New Wave and Brazilian Bossa Nova are practically two sides of the same coin.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Trevor Horn!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Trevor Horn’s 77th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Neil Tennant!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pet Shop Boys and Electronic frontman Neil Tennant’s 72nd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Andy Fletcher!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 65th anniversary of the birth of Depeche Mode co-founder Andy Fletcher’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 65th Birthday, Vince Clarke!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Vince Clarke’s 65th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Josh da Costa Shares Shimmering, Goth-like Dirge “96 Year Old Girl”

Los Angeles-based artist Josh da Costa was a fixture in the early 2010s Brooklyn scene. Covering music back then, it seemed as though anyone could start a band or a project — and just about everyone did. And they all played at hundreds of now, long-shuttered venues like Cameo Art Gallery, Glasslands, 285 Kent, The Palisades, The Grand Victory, Trash Bar and countless others. da Costa’s first band Regal Degal toured with Real Estate and DIIV and opened for The Pop Group.

When Regal Degal split up, da Costa relocated to Los Angeles. The old Craftsman house he shared with Geneva Jacuzzi, Shags Chamberlain, James Ferraro and Daryl Johns was a paradise for “freaks and friends,” as well as artists and musicians, who constantly wandered in for a jam session or for a hang. At the time, he played drums with Drugdealer and MGMT and he formed CMON, who released an album through Mexican Summer.

The party came to an abrupt end when the Craftsman burned down “in a blaze of glory,” set alight by a serial arsonist and the pandemic forced CMON, much like countless other acts, to cancel a big tour. da Costa’s serious relationship also ended. But for him, it wasn’t all disaster: his friends supported him after the fire, he met someone new and the pandemic meant that he finally had the time to revisit music from his adolescence and “get deep into some of the great I’d had lying around for years but overlooked.”

da Costa’s full-length debut, New Wave Graveyard is slated for a July 24, 2026 release through Stones Throw Records. He imagined the album as a “greatest hits from a parallel universe, classic songs from an alternate reality.” “Instead of trying to hone in on one specific vibe or sound, I went through my own taste and record collection and tried out different approaches — as if I were more than just one artist,” he explains. While drawing from different styles and genres, the album’s material is anchored in how he crystallizes these very different approaches into something singular distinct, crafting a stylish record that defies easy categorization.

If you’ve been lucky to catch da Costa DJ around Los Angeles or have caught his Confusing Mix radio show on NTS, the album’s album overall aesthetic won’t come as a surprise. As a DJ and radio host, he has an uncanny knack for finding curious records from all over the place — music from Brussels-based micro-labels, Flying Nun Records favorites and left field post punk — and blending them in a way that somehow makes perfect sense.

Written over the course of several years, New Wave Graveyard was written during a transition period, a time when da Costa was “getting close to people and getting torn between the types of pleasure and discomfort all of that brings. Breaking people’s hearts, but mostly your own. And remaining excited about not just falling in love, but staying in love.”

Much like countless others, da Costa was drawn to LA’s “movie magic, bizarre music, sleazy sexy glammy druggy outsiders, and this blown-out bad vibe flipside to the California dream” – which interestingly enough, also describers New Wave Graveyard in a nutshell. The titular new wave graveyard is both a literal place (da Costa sometimes drives by his old burned-down house, which is still vacant) and a vibe, an elegy to forgotten fantasies and faded memories.

Nothing lasts forever: Bands start and break up. Friends flame out and lovers leave. Treasured spaces vanish. But the album reportedly bottles the sensation of being there, where the magic and cool shit happened — even if that place is completely imagined. It’s a celebration of strange people met once, but never forgotten, of shows and parties you attended and those you wished you had, of being young and earnest, and a little bit weird.

New Wave Graveyard’s latest single “96 Year Old Girl” is a dirgey yet shimmering electro pop ballad that to my ears is one-part brooding goth, one-part Tears for Fears, one-part Prefab Sprout and one-part Jorge Elbrecht. Thematically, the song reckons with not feeling seemed by a loved one and was written one night “after getting really high, ordering Dominos, and watching Terminator 2,” da Costa explains.

Directed by Skellyrot, the accompanying video for “96 Year Old Girl” fittingly employs 1980s VHS shot footage and resembles both public access TV shows and low budget music videos and horror movies.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: James Tonic Shares Cinematic and Yearning “At The Time In New York”

James Tonic is a Montréal-born, New York-based dream pop artist, who over the course of seven albums firmly established a sound built on analog synths, live drums and unflinching lyrics. 2024’s Stuck in LA, an […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Dave Gahan!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan’s 64th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: I WANT POETRY Share Lush, Nostalgia-Inducing “Backyard Astronauts”

German indie electro pop duo I WANT POETRY — Tine von Bergen (vocals) and Till Moritz Moll (keys) — have received attention for crafting music that simultaneously feels cinematic and deeply human, blending emotional depth with luminous pop soundscapes. 

While developing a reputation for an immersive live show and striking visuals, the German duo have earned critical acclaim and a nomination at the European Songwriting Awards. The duo have played over 100 shows across their native Germany, Poland, Sweden and elsewhere, while making the run of the European showcase festival circuit. And adding to a growing national and international profile, the duo’s single “Light” landed on iTunes charts in several countries, amassing over 500,000 streams globally — and was selected for the soundtrack for the Canadian film, La mécanique des frontières. 

2026 looks to be a breakthrough year for the German indie electro pop duo: Their highly anticipated third album, Future Selves is slated for a May 29, 2026 release. The album is reportedly hopeful and transformative, inspired by a brief moment in time when the future still felt like a promise, channeling the spirit of past dreams of utopia and progress. And as a result, the new album offers a forward-thinking vision shaped by memory, imagination and the will to create what comes next.

Sonically, the album’s material marks an evolution from the reflective tones of Solace + Light, featuring layers of shimming synths and soaring melodies. 

Future Selves will include the previously released “Mirrors Of The Sky,” the Michael Micheal Vanja, Ghian Wright and The EmU-co-produced “No Is a Full Sentence,” and it’s latest single “Backyard Astronauts.”

“Backyard Astronauts” continues a run of lush, hook-driven synth pop but unlike its immediate predecessors, the new single sees the German duo showcasing a balance of earnestness, childhood whimsy and wonder — the sort of wonder and joy inspired by brave astronauts and space travel. But along with that is the of dream of scientific and technological progress informing a desperately needed sense of hope and unity, much like the recent Artemis II mission.

“‘Backyard Astronauts’ captures the feeling of childhood summers when imagination could turn a backyard into a space mission,” the German duo explain,. It’s our song for everyone who still has a sense of wonder about space travel, a quiet dream of unity and progress that feels as present now as it did back then. It’s a reminder of how closely we’re connected – and how far imagination and friendship can take us.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Florian Schneider!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 79th anniversary of Florian Schneider’s birth.