JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 59th anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s birth.
Tag: The Afghan Whigs
Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Greg Dulli!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Greg Dulli’s 58th birthday.
New Video: Olivia Jean Shares Creepy and Groovy “Raving Ghost”
Growing up on the outskirts of Detroit, Olivia Jean found her first musical love in 1960’s instrumental surf bands. Taking up guitar at an early age, she became enamored by the city’s thriving garage rock scene, drawing inspiration from its unique rawness. By the time, she was a teenager, the Detroit-area based singer/songwriter and musician began regarding her own surf music compositions. After years of self-recording, she put together a demo that led to the founding of the Black Belles and the band’s signing to Jack White‘s Third Man Records.
After the release of the Black Belles’ 2011 self-titled full-length debut, Olivia Jean stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her full-length debut, 2014’s Bathtub Love Killings. She then followed with her self-produced sophomore album, 2019’s Night Owl.
Slated for a Friday release through Third Man Records, Olivia Jean’s highly-anticipated third album Raving Ghost is populated by mysterious characters in various states of danger — cursed lovers, doomed souls, women deliriously hunted by unseen forces. Featuring backing from a collection of top players, including My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster (keys), Jellyfish‘s Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (keys). T-Bone Burnett‘s and Nikki Lane‘s Carla Azar (drums) and The Raconteurs‘ and The Afghan Whigs‘ Patrick Keeler (drums), the 11-song album sees Olivia Jean amplifying the drama with her wildly melodic take on garage rock, with each riff handled with the power and precision she’s shown as a member of the Black Belles and as an in-demand session and touring musician. As a whole, the album is reportedly an evolution of the retro-surf sound featured on her previously released solo work while arguably being among the most mesmerizing material she’s released to date.
The album’s latest single is the slinky and darkly seductive album title title track “Raving Ghost.” Built around a looping, Link Wray-meets-Jack White gutter line paired with twinkling keys, a rousing anthemic, power chord-driven chorus paired with Olivia Jean’s mesmerizing vocal, “Raving Ghost” is a groovy but unsettling tale of a woman being hunted by a creepy and determined, unseen force.
Directed by Erica Salazar and Olivia Jean, the accompanying video for “Raving Ghost” fittingly features the acclaimed singer/songwriter and musician being followed by monstrous and shadowy figures, who at times surround her.
Since their formation in Cincinnati back in 1986, The Afghan Whigs — currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — have a long-held reputation for refusing to play by convention: During the flannel and plaid of the early 90s grunge era, the members of The Afghan Whigs stood apart from their contemporaries for wearing suits and for being more likely to slide into a soulful groove than a power chord-driven riff.
Reuniting after an 11 year hiatus in 2012, the JOVM mainstays released two critically applauded albums, 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades, that found the band writing and recording music that furthered their story together, while pushing their sound in new directions.
Slated for a September 9, 2022 release through Royal Cream/BMG, the JOVM mainstays’ ninth album — and first in five years — the Christopher Thorn co-produced How Do You Burn? reportedly picks up on the sound and appraoch of 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades and pushes it even further. With the pandemic forcing Greg Dulli to abandon plans to support his critically applauded solo album Random Desire, the band began working on How Do You Burn? in September 2020 and continued over the next 14 months in remote recording sessions: Dulli, Thorn and Keeler in California; Curley, Jon Skibic (guitar) and Nelson laying down and engineering their own parts in Cincinnati, New Jersey and New Orleans respectively. “Once we got the system down, we started flying,” Greg Dulli says.
The album features guest spots from a collection of frequent and longtime collaborators including — the late Mark Lanegan, a collaborator of Dulli’s in The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins, as well as a close friend. Lanengan sung backup vocals on two album tracks. “It was Mark who named the album,” Dulli says in press notes. Susan Marshall, who contributed to 1998’s 1965 contributes vocals on album track “Catch A Colt.” Van Hunt,who toured with the band in 2012 and contributed to 2014’s Do to the Beast, contributes vocals on “Jyla” and “Take Me There.” And last but definitely not least, Marcy Mays, lead vocalist on Gentlemen‘s “My Curse” contributes vocals to “Domino and Jimmy,” a song that Dulli had specifically written with Mays in mind.
So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:
- “I’ll Make You See God,” which is arguably one of the hardest and aggressive songs they’ve written and recorded in close to 30 years.
- “The Getaway,” a widescreen ballad that pairs Dulli’s whiskey and cigarette-like croon with a gorgeous string arrangement, twinkling keys and Dulli’s unerring knack for crafting earnest, lived-in material with enormous, arena rock friendly hooks.
How Do You Burn?’s third and latest single “A Line of Shots,” a woozy yet anthemic ballad featuring heavily distorted and delay pedaled guitars, Greg Dulli’s imitable croon paired with a slow-burning groove and the band’s unerring knack for rousing, fist-up-in-the-air choruses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, “A Line of Shots” was so much of a crowd favorite during the JOVM mainstays’ May 2022 US tour that the band decided that the song needed its own moment in the sun.
The JOVM mainstays are about to embark on a UK and European Union tour that starts on July 23, 2022 and ends on August 10, 2022. The band will take a few weeks off and then go on a month-long US tour that includes a September 15, 2022 stop at Brooklyn Steel. They’ll cap a big year with a return to European Union and UK. Tour dates are below.
EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR DATES
07/23 Brighton, UK Concorde 2
07/24 Suffolk, UK Latitude Festival
07/26 Frankfurt, Germany Batschkapp
07/28 Vienna, Austria Flex
07/29 Prague, Czech Republic Lucerna Music Bar
07/30 Berlin, Germany Metropol
08/01 Oslo, Norway Parkteatret Scene
08/02 Stockholm, Sweden Debaser
08/03 Copenhagen, Denmark Amager Bio
08/05 Hamburg, Germany Uebel & Gefährlich (Half House)
08/06 Nijmegen, Netherlands Roosje Live In Park @ Openluchttheater Goffert
08/08 Stuttgart, Germany Im Wizemann
08/09 Cologne, Germany Luxor
08/10 Lokeren, Belgium Lokersee Feesten
U.S. FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES
09/09 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Café
09/10 Chicago, IL Metro
09/11 Cincinnati, OH Bogarts
09/12 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
09/14 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
09/15 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
09/16 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
09/17 Boston, MA Paradise
09/20 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theatre
09/21 Asheville, NC The Grey Eagle
09/22 Birmingham, AL Saturn
09/24 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jacks
09/28 Austin, TX Mohawk
09/29 Dallas, TX The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
10/01 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre
10/02 Salt Lake City, UT The Commonwealth Room
10/05 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
10/06 Seattle, WA The Showbox
10/08 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom
10/09 Dana Point, CA Ohana Encore
10/11 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole
10/12 Los Angeles, CA Belasco Theatre
EUROPEAN FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES
10/22 Madrid, Spain Teatro Barceló
10/23 Barcelona, Spain Apolo 2
10/25 Milan, Italy Santeria
10/26 Rome, Italy Largo
10/28 Munich, Germany Freiheitshalle
10/29 Zurich, Switzerland Bogen F
10/30 Luxembourg Den Atelier
11/01 Amsterdam, Netherlands Paradiso
11/02 Antwerp, Belgium De Roma
11/04 Manchester, UK Cathedral
11/05 Glasgow, UK St. Lukes
11/06 London, UK KOKO
Since their formation in Cincinnati back in 1986, The Afghan Whigs — currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — have a long-held reputation for never playing by convention: During the plaid and grunge era of the early 90s, the members of The Afghan Whigs stood apart from their contemporaries by wearing suits and for being more likely to slide into a soulful groove than a power chord driven riff.
Reuniting after an 11 year hiatus in 2012, the JOVM mainstays released two critically applauded albums, 2014’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades, that found the band writing and recording music that furthered their story together, while pushing their sound in new directions.
“I’ll Make You See God,” is the first bit of new material from the JOVM mainstays since 2017’s In Spades, and the single is a roaring headbanger centered around fiery power chord driven riffage, thunderous drumming Greg Dulli’s imitable crooning and an arena rock friendly hook. It’s arguably one of the hardest and aggressive songs they’ve written and recorded in close to 30 years.
“That’s one of the hardest rock songs we’ve ever done,” the band’s Greg Dulli says in press notes. “It was written and performed on sheer adrenalin.”
Along with the new single, the JOVM mainstays announced a short run of US tour dates. which will see them playing small venues across the East Coast, Midwest and Southeast. The tour closes out with a May 25, 2022 stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg. As always, tour dates are below.
2022 TOUR DATES
05/11 Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
05/12 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
05/13 Orlando, FL The Social
05/14 Atlanta, GA Terminal West
05/15 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
05/17 Nashville, TN The Basement East
05/18 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall
05/20 St. Louis, MO Delmar Hall
05/21 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom
05/22 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
05/24 Pittsburgh, PA Mr Smalls Theatre
05/25 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
New Video: Asset Music Releases a “120 Minutes” MTV-era Alt Rock Inspired Single
Will Goodchild is a Marlow, Buckingham, UK-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer, and the creative mastermind behind the emerging solo recording project Asset Music. As Goodchild explains, Asset Music was created as a creative outlet, when it became difficult to get a real band together to play. So, he took to his mini studio — a MacBook Pro with Logic X — and started writing and recording music inspired by Brit Pop and alt rock that he wanted to hear. Although, Goodchild aims to take the project wherever his muses take him, with the project being firmly rooted in the ‘if it sounds good, it must be” ethos.
In the meantime, Asset Music’s latest single “Shine On” is a decidedly 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock single featuring fuzzy power chords, cavernous drumming and a rousingly anthemic hook. Sonically, the track brings Gentlemen-era Afghan Whigs to mind; but as Goodchild explains in press notes, the song reflects on the past year of the pandemic but with an optimistic view of things getting back to some level of normal. Live music may actually be a fucking thing again in New York, so how about that?
The recently released video by Studio 4×2 follows a black clad traveling guitarist. The guitarist travels about, playing music in various locations throughout a long day and night. And while the cities are quiet, things aren’t completely hopeless. You do see people embarking on their daily errands — and the sight of a wandering musician gives a small bit of hope for normalcy on the horizon.
New Video: Jupe Jupe Releases a Stylish Visual for New Order-Inspired “Leave You Lonely”
Seattle-based indie electro pop act Jupe Jupe — My Young (vocals, synths), Bryan Manzo (guitar, bass, sax), Patrick Partington (guitar), and Jarrod Arbini (drums, percussion) — have released four albums since their formation in 2010 — Invaders, Reduction in Drag, Crooked Kisses, and Lonely Creatures — that have firmly established their sound: an infectious, dance floor friendly sound influenced by post-punk, synth pop and Americana. Adding to a growing profile, the act has collaborated with the likes of The Afghan Whigs‘ Rick G. Nelson, Lusine, Mike Simonetti, Erik Blood and a number of others on their remix album Cut Up Kisses.
Released earlier this year, the Seattle-based quartet’s Matt Bayles-produced Nightfall EP was recorded at Seattle-based Studio Litho and continues their ongoing collaboration with Bayles, who produced and engineered their last album. Meticulously written over the course of a year, the five song EP features five hook-driven upbeat yet simultaneously melancholy songs that thematically focuses on yearning and desire — with the addition of a saxophone to their sound.
EP single “Leave You Lonely”is a shimmering and decidedly New Order-like track centred around shimmering synth arpeggios, angular guitar blasts, a propulsive bass line, four-on-the-floor drumming, My Young’s plaintive vocals and an infectious hook. And while being a pop-inspired confection with ambitious songwriting, the song evokes a swooning and earnest yearning.
The recently released video features a meshing of three distinct visual styles — line animation, live footage shot in a high contrast negative and a lyric video — while being decently 80s influenced — and in a way that brings A-Ha’s “Take On Me” to mind.
New Video: Seattle’s Jupe Jupe Releases an 80s MTV-Influenced Visual for Brooding Disco-Tinged “How Could We Both Be In Love”
Seattle-based indie electro pop act Jupe Jupe, which features My Young (vocals, synths), Bryan Manzo (guitar, bass, sax), Patrick Partington (guitar) and Jarrod Arbini (drums, percussion) have released four albums since their formation 2010 — Invaders, Reduction in Drag, Crooked Kisses, and Lonely Creatures — that have firmly established their sound: an infectious, dance floor friendly sound influenced by post-punk, synth pop and Americana. Adding to a growing profile, the act has collaborated with the likes of The Afghan Whigs‘ Rick G. Nelson, Lusine, Mike Simonetti, Erik Blood and a number of others on their remix album Cut Up Kisses.
Released earlier this year, the Seattle-based quartet’s Matt Bayles-produced Nightfall EP was recorded at Seattle-based Studio Litho and continues their ongoing collaboration with Bayles, who produced and engineered their last album. Meticulously written over the course of a year, the five song EP features five hook-driven upbeat yet simultaneously melancholy songs that thematically focuses on yearning and desire — with the addition of a saxophone to their sound.
Now, as you may recall, I wrote about the shimmering, New Order-like “Leave You Lonely,” a decidedly ambitious and cinematic pop confection that expresses an aching yearning. Centered around a sinuous bass line, four-on-the floor drumming, shimmering synth arpeggios, plaintive vocals, an anthemic hook, and a mournful saxophone line, “How Could We Both Be In Love” continues a run of brooding yet disco-tinged pop confections. But unlike its immediate predecessor, the track sonically manages to bring Avalon-era Roxy Music and Duran Duran to mind while evoking late night, noir-ish vibes. The recently released video by Dirty Sidewalks’ Erik Foster is an incredibly stylish and moody visual that nods at French nouvelle vague and 80s MTV.
