Tag: The Jesus and Mary Chain

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout its six-year history and especially over the past couple of months, you’ve come across posts featuring the Brooklyn-based shoegazer rock and art collective Dead Leaf Echo. And over that period of time the members of the collective have seen a growing national and international profile as they’ve played sets at several of the country’s largest and best known festivals, have opened for a list of renowned and well-regarded bands including The Wedding Present, A Place to Bury Strangers, . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Psychedelic Furs, Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Weekend, Lorelei, The Ocean Blue, The Warlocks, Beach Fossils, and The Telescopes and have made appearances on KEXP‘s John in the Morning and on Nic Harcourt’s KCSN show.

Since the 2013 release of the band’s 4AD Records-inspired full-length debut effort Thought and Language and its follow up true.deep.sleeper EP, the members of the band have been working on their much-anticipated sophomore, full-length effort but in the meantime, they’re releasing a cassette tape edition of the “Lemonheart” 7 inch through Wiener Records on November 4, 2016, as the two original vinyl pressings are completely sold out. Now, you may recall that as I wrote about “Lemonheart,” the single would further cement their reputation for crafting lush, shimmering shoegaze and dream pop in the vein of RIDE, Swervedriver and Slowdive. The 7 inch’s B-side “sparks.fly.from.a.kiss” reveals a thorough change in direction as layers of swirling and buzzing guitar chords and skittering, four-on-the-floor-like drum programming and boom bap beats to create a swaggering and strutting song that sounds indebted to Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain and others, as it may arguably be the most abrasive and scorching song they’ve released to date. But just underneath the abrasiveness is a swooning and passionate declaration of love.

Dead Leaf Echo have embarked on a Fall/Winter tour to support the release of the “Lemonhead” 7 inch cassette tape edition and it includes a two Brooklyn dates. Check out the tour dates below.

Fall/Winter 2016 Dates:
11.06 – New York, NY @ Berlin (Release Party w/ Midnight Hollow, Big Band)
11.09 – Ft Wayne, IN @ The Brass Rail (w/ March On, Comrade)
11.10 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle (w/ Lightfoils, Ganser)
11.11 – Detroit, MI @ Echo Fest
11.12 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Louis Trophy Room (Kalamashoegazer Festival)
11.19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store (w/ Solilians, Landing)
11.25 – Nashville. TN @ TBD
12.03 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortleib’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by frontman and primary member Alexander Mann and featuring a rotating cast of collaborators, friends and studio and touring musicians, San Francisco, CA-based psych rock project Silent Pictures have started to receive both regional and national attention with the release of their latest full-length effort Let It Begin,  an effort that consists of material that on a superficial level fits under the psych rock umbrella but manages to be mischievously and effortlessly plays with its boundaries as the band reportedly channels the likes of T-Rex, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stone Roses and 90s Brit Pop — sometimes simultaneously.

Let It Begin‘s latest single “Time Has Broken/Let It Begin” will further cement the band’s burgeoning reputation as it features layers of guitars played through reverb and effects pedals, a propulsive, motorik-like groove with thundering drumming, an anthemic hook paired with lyrics that focus on a relativistic view of time. Sonically speaking the song sounds indebted to The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stone Roses and Hookworms — while subtly hinting at shoegaze.

The recently released music video was filmed at an early 19th century Rosicrucian Temple and with shaky cameras, rapid fire cuts and cult symbolism, the video evokes a paranoid, trippy and frenetic world of conspiracies run by secret societies — while bearing an uncanny resemblance to 120 Minutes-era MTV.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Raveonettes Return with a Gorgeous and Bittersweet Addition to their Rave Sound of the Month Series

The previous Rave Sound of the Month single “Won’t You Leave Me Alone” was a bitter tell off from a jilted and exasperated lover, who’s sick of a partner, who just won’t get the hint that she’s had enough of their lover and their shit — and that it’s time for them to move on. Sonically, the song consisted of a towering and jagged soundscape of swirling and buzzing guitar chords, and thundering drumming that reminds me a little bit of The Jesus and Mary Chain; however, the series latest single “Where Are You Wild Horses” is a dreamy and atmospheric song that pairs with shimmering and subtly twangy guitar chords, breathily cooed vocals, a sinuous bass line, shuffling drumming and a dreamily forlorn melody. Lyrically, the song’s narrator has accepted the fact that their relationship is over, and that it’s time to move on and let it be part of the past and a result, it emphasizes a bittersweet reality of the majority of our relationships — that all too often, they end; but that they wind up being part of a intricate and messy life story.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Bert Cannaerts (vocals/guitar), Giel Torfs (guitar/backing vocals), Philippe Corthout (guitar), Robby Geybels (bass) and Stef Gouwkens (drums), Newmoon are an Antwerp and Ghent, Belgium-based indie rock quintet derive their name from an Elliot Smith album, and although they formed in 2013, they can trace their origins to the breakup of locally renowned hardcore punk band Midnight Souls. Certainly, for anyone who may have been familiar with their previous project, Newmoon may superficially appear to be sonic change in direction, a proverbial left turn — despite the fact that reportedly, the band’s influences have almost always been the same: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ramones, Oasis, and Sunn o))).

Their debut EP was released Touché Amoré’s label Secret Voice/Deathwish Inc. and the reconvened and rebranded quintet quickly built up a profile across the European Union as they’ve toured with the likes of Touché Amoré, Basement, Nothing and Cloakroom, and others. Building upon the buzz they’ve received, the band will be releasing their anticipated full-length debut as Newmoon, Space in October through PIAS Records. And the album’s first single “Head of Stone,” which was written while the band was on a bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto and is primarily about the feeling of being lost and alone when you confront an impenetrable language barrier — the sort in which you don’t speak or understand a word of that country’s language and the people around you don’t speak your language. As the band’s Bert Cannaerts explains in press notes, “I realised that there’s something very frightening about being in a place where you are unable to connect to people in any way. You cannot understand the language they are speaking; you can’t understand any visual cues. This can make you feel isolated and invisible. The same thing can happen with emotional relationships. They get to a point where people become unable to communicate, and emotions and nuances are lost. This leads to isolation and resentment and people go their separate ways.”

As for the song you’ll hear propulsive, four-on-the-floor drumming, layers upon layers of gently buzzing power chords and anthemic hooks with ethereal vocals bubbling over an enveloping and dreamy sound and to my ears, I’m reminded of My Vitriol‘s Finelines, A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul-era The Verve and others — but with a subtly expansive song structure as the song possesses an explosive introduction,  the previously mentioned anthemic hook and a towering bridge with a mind-altering guitar solo.

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Raveonettes Venomous, Post-Break Up Tell Off “Won’t You Leave Me Alone”

The Rave Sound of the Month’s latest single “Won’t You Leave Me Alone” is a bitter tell off from a jilted and exasperated lover, who’s sick of a partner, who just won’t get the hint that she has had enough — and it’s time for them to go. And the song is paired with a towering and jagged soundscape of swirling and buzzing guitar chords, and thundering drumming that reminds me of The Jesus and Mary Chain — but much more anthemic. And while listening to the song I guarantee you that you’ll be familiar with the sentiment from both ends.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Israeli Superstar Ninet Tayeb is Set to Take Over the World with Ass-Kicking Visuals for “Superstar”

With a relocation to Los Angeles and the forthcoming Stateside release of her fifth full-length release this fall, Tayeb hopes to become an international superstar — and with the aptly titled first single “Superstar” Tayeb may well be the next big thing. Although some have said that the Israeli-born singer/songwriter and actress seems to take cues from Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O., The Kills’ Allison Mossheart, sonically her sound reminds me quite a bit of Garbage — namely the self-titled debut and Version 2.0 — as the song is comprised of buzzing power chords, propulsive and thundering drumming, rousingly anthemic hooks and a towering self-assuredness that simply says “I’m here and I ain’t fucking around.”

The recently released music video directed by Yoni Ronn features Tayeb in action movie-like music video that features the singer/songwriter as a vengeance-seeking assassin, following her enemy through the streets of New York.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although initially comprised of founding members Marcus Admund (vocals) and Albin Wesley (bass), along with Nikki Nyberg (guitar) and Erik Fritz (drums), Stockholm, Sweden-based quartet Honeymilk formed back in 2012, the band could actually trace their origins to the formation and eventually breakup of Urmas Plant, a band which featured several of the members of Honeymilk. With the release of “It Might Be,” a single produced by Linus Larsson, best known for his work with Peter, Bjorn and John, Mercury Rev and Anna Ternheim, the band quickly received praise across the blogosphere and received radio airplay on several radio stations including Amazing Radio and Oxford College Radio. Interestingly, after the release of “It Might Be,” the band decided to go to the DIY route, recording and producing their own work, including their critically applauded, full-length debut Lean on the Sun.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting over the past couple of years, you may recall that I wrote about Honeymilk and their single “A Scene in Between,” a single that sonically sounded as though it were indebted to Brit pop and British psych rock – in particular, The Stone Roses, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Verve, and Oasis. Over that time, the renowned Swedish act has gone through yet another lineup change with the band turning into a duo featuring the band’s co-founding member Edmund, along with Nyberg — and understandably with such a massive lineup change, the band has gone through a major change of sonic direction as you’ll hear on their latest single “Time Will Kill You.” With the latest single, the duo sounds as though they were subtly channeling Vampire Weekend and others as ambient synths are paired with a loose, looping guitar line played through reverb and delay pedal, a slinky bass line, an ethereal yet catchy melody and harmony and Admund’s plaintive vocals. And while being incredibly breezy, the song thematically speaking focuses on a profound metaphysical truth that we’re all aware — that time will relentlessly continue onward with or without us.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Creepy and Dread-Filled Visuals for Bloody Knives’ “Poison Halo”

  Initially comprised of Preston Maddox (bass, vocals, keyboards, samples and programming) Jake McCown (drums, noise, programming) with recent recruits Jack O’Hara Harris (guitar), Richard Napierkowski (synth) and Martin McCreadie (synth) joining to flesh out […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Existential Visuals and Sounds of Brooklyn’s Bambara

BAMBARA – All The Ugly Things from blaze bateh on Vimeo. With the release of DREAMVIOLENCE, the Brooklyn-based trio Bambara, comprised of twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh and William Brookshire quickly became a JOVM mainstay […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Currently comprised of Drew Citron (vocals, guitar) and Scott Rosenthal, the Brooklyn-based band Beverly was initially formed back in 2013 by Citron and Frankie Rose, best known in New York music scene circles as being in the early lineups of Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts, as well as several other projects before releasing material as a solo artist. Now, if you were following this site back in 2014 you may recall coming across  a post on “Planet Birthday,” the third single off the band’s full-length debut Careers was a noisy and propulsive song with swirling and towering feedback and layers of buzzing guitars paired with seductively crooned vocals. Sonically, the song seemed to channel early Dum Dum Girls and The Go-Gos but as though they were covering The Jesus and Mary Chain — but with a loose, boozy feel.

“Contact,” is the latest single form the band’s long-awaited sophomore effort, The Blue Swell, slated for a May 6 release through Kanine Records, and the new effort not only reveals a lineup change but also a decided change in sonic direction as the band pairs shimmering guitar chords, a propulsive and driving rhythm section with gorgeous and ethereal vocals. Sonically, the song sounds as though the band drew from Too True-era Dum Dum Girls, My Gold Mask, garage rock and shoegaze.

The band is the middle of an lengthy tour, which will include several sets at SXSW and an NYC area set at Baby’s All Right. Check tour dates below.

Tour Dates
Mar 15 Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas
Mar 16 Austin, TX – Spider House
Mar 16 Austin, TX – Valhalla
Mar 17 Austin, TX – Container Bar
Mar 17 Austin, TX – El Sapo
Mar 18 Austin, TX – Maggie Mae’s
Mar 19 Dallas, TX – Spillover Fest
Mar 22 Columbia, MO – Rose Music Hall *
Mar 23 Omaha, NE – Milk Run *
Mar 24 Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen *
Mar 25 Cincinnati, OH – MOTR Pub *
Mar 26 State College, PA – Chronic Town *
May 5 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right (Record Release Show)
May 7 Rough Trade Record Store, Brooklyn, NY (2pm free instore)
May 10 Amsterdam, NE – De School
May 13 Paris, FR – La Mécanique Ondulatoire
May 16 Manchester, UK – Soup Kitchen +
May 17 Bristol, UK – The Louisiana +
May 18 London, UK – The Victoria Dalston +
June 14 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s %
June 18 Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn %
June 20 Memphis, TN – The Hi-Tone %
June 22 Cincinnati, OH – Northside Yacht Club %

* w/Lazyeyes
+ w/Box of Light
% w/Flowers

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy and Introspective Visuals for The Veldt’s “Sanctified”

Last month, I wrote two rather lengthy posts on the pioneering Raleigh, NC/NYC-based shoegaze quintet The Veldt. Currently comprised of founding members and identical twin brothers Daniel Chavis (vocals, guitar) and Danny Chavis (guitar) along with […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Initially comprised of Preston Maddox (bass, vocals, keyboards, samples and programming) Jake McCown (drums, noise, programming) — with recent recruits Jack O’Hara Harris (guitar), Richard Napierkowski (synth) and Martin McCreadie (synth) to flesh out the band’s live set, Austin, TX-based shoegaze act Bloody Knives have developed a reputation locally and regionally for a sound that meshes elements of punk, industrial electronica and ambient electronica with 8 bit glitches, bloops and bleeps; sonically speaking their sound is reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, A Place to Bury Strangers, The Jesus and Mary Chain and others as their sound manages moments of punishing noisy bleakness with moments of sublime and dreamy beauty.

The Austin shoegazer band’s forthcoming, new album I Will Cut Your Heart Out For This is slated for an April 15, 2016 release through Saint Marie Records and the album is reportedly inspired by the “forgotten places, the dark corners of empty cities, decaying buildings filled with vacant people” — the world of the lost and broken.” The album’s first single “Poison Halo” will further cement the band’s reputation for crafting a gritty, punishing and yet dreamy sound as shimmering synths and guitar chords are paired with towering layers of feedback, a propulsive motorik-like groove and Maddox’s ethereal and plaintive vocals floating over an ominous and punishing wall of sound that gently yet insistently pushes the boundaries of what shoegaze should sound like.

 

The band will be embarking on the road throughout April. Check out tour dates below.

 

TOUR DATES
Fri April 1st-El Paso @ Boomtown
Sat April 2nd-Flagstaff AZ @ Mias Lounge
Monday April 4th-LA @ Viper Room w/Luna 13
Thur April 7th- Fresno @ TBA w/Sleepover Disaster
Fri April 8th-Portland @ High Water Mark w/Peridot, Airplane
Saturday April 9th Seattle @Highline w/Vibragun
Sunday April 10th Olympia WA @ Westside Lanes
Tue April 12th-Minneapolis @Hexagon  with TRITA
Wed April 13th-Chicago @ Empty Bottle w New Canyons
Thur April 14th-Milwaukee @ Quarters
Friday April 15th Champaign IL @ Mike and Molly’s w/TBA
Sat April 16th St. Louis TBA
Friday April 22nd @Norman Music Fest w/Power Trip

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Earlier, I wrote a lengthy post about pioneering Raleigh, NC/NYC-based shoegaze quintet The Veldt. Currently comprised of founding members and identical twin brothers Daniel Chavis (vocals, guitar) and Danny Chavis (guitar) along with Hayato Nakao (bass), Frank Olsen (guitar), and Martin Levi (drums), the quintet can trace their origins to the vital and quirky Chapel Hill, NC music scene of the late 80s and early 90s — a scene that featured Superchunk (perhaps, the best known out of that entire scene), Polvo, Dillon Fence and others. Initially featuring the Chavis Brothers and Levi along with Joseph “Hue” Boyle (bass) and later David Burris, The Veldt managed to be a rather extreme rarity  as shoegaze act prominently featuring black men in a genre, as well as a place and time in which it was considered highly unusual — and honestly still is; however, despite how unusual it seemed, the then-Chapel Hill, NC-based band quickly attained “must-see” status in their home city and a rapidly growing national profile with the release of their debut effort Marigolds. 

Their 1994 Ray Shulman-produced sophomore effort Afrodisiac propelled the band towards international recognition and the band wound up opening and touring with the likes of  The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, Oasis, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Fishbone, Corrosion of Conformity and others. Unfortunately, throughout their initial run together, the members of the band found with their management and labels who found them “too difficult to market” as their sound meshed elements of old school soul and shoegaze. And unsurprisingly, the band got dropped from their label. Struggling to fund writing, recording, releasing and marketing their work and touring, the band went through several lineup changes before officially going on hiatus in 1998.

Several years later, the Chavis Brothers had relocated to New York and started their post The Veldt project, Apollo Heights, which received quite a bit of buzz locally for a sound that added trip-hop and electronica to their previous mix of shoegaze and soul. In fact, I can clearly remember reading a raving and informative profile of the band in the old New York Press, a few years before I started to write for the publication. And honestly, it shouldn’t be surprising that critics and journalists were raving about the band — their 2007 Apollo Heights debut White Music For Black People was produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and featured guest spots from Guthrie on guitar, Mos Def, Lady Kier of Deee- Lite, TV on the Radio‘s Dave Sitek, and Mike Ladd.

Sadly, despite their early successes the Chavis Brothers work have been reduced to largely cult-favorite status; but interestingly enough, their work in The Veldt and Apollo Heights has managed to quietly reverberate and influence some highly regarded contemporary musicians — the members of  Bloc Party and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek have publicly claimed The Veldt as influences on their work and sound, which has proven that the Chavis Brothers had the somewhat bitter misfortunate of being about 20 years ahead of their time; however, with the forthcoming release of The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation Mixtape, their first batch of original material in almost 20 years, the members of the reformed band seek to firmly establish their claim as the forebears and pioneers of a sound and aesthetic that has captured the blogosphere and fans by storm. And interestingly enough, they hop they do so in a similar fashion to the incredible renaissance that the members of Detroit-based proto-punk/proto-metal band Death has seen over the past few years.

“Sanctified,” the first single off The Shocking Fuzz reveals how deeply indebted TV on the Radio’s sound is to The Veldt as towering squalls of guitar chords played through gentle amounts of reverb paired with skittering yet propulsive drum programming and Danny Chavis’ soulful crooning in a tender and swooning song that evokes the feeling of being desperately, madly, stupidly in love — in a way that nods at subtly cosmic version of The Jesus and Mary Chain, if they had been influenced by Fishbone , Marvin Gaye and Prince; in other words, it’s shoegaze that manages to be irresistibly sexy.