Initially begun as a solo side project from her time with Vivian Girls and All Saints Day, Katy Goodman’s current musical project La Sera developed a national profile with the release of three critically applauded albums — the project’s self-titled debut, Sees […]
Tag: The Smiths
I’ve been under the weather the past few days and haven’t been able to do as much as I would have preferred; however, with the massive snowstorm we received here in the NYC area, there wasn’t much that could have been done anyway, and I honestly needed the rest. Now, earlier this monthI wrote about Atlanta, GA-based indie rock band Flower. And as the story went, the band’s frontman and primary Jack Fowler had written the material off the band’s soon-to-be released album Waste of Life, while his life had felt as though it were in a holding pattern. Although he had a busy year as the frontman of exwhy, who had signed to Other People Records and toured with renowned indie acts Pujol and Knox Hamilton, Fowler desperately wanted to focus on revealing his vulnerable side — and in turn, felt a need to write material that was informed and inspired by other aspects of his own life; in fact, Waste of Life is heavily informed by Fowler’s experience as a 9-5 officer done. As Fowler has explained in press notes “I was working a pretty decent office job and doing absolutely nothing beyond working and getting depressed. I was just spinning my wheels and growing bored and really depressed. I was struggling with talking to people, being social at all. That’s the core of this album—anxiety and not being sure how to define yourself. ” Certainly, if you’re creative or just didn’t quite know what you wanted to actually do with yourself, those feelings of depression, anxiety and utter worthlessness is familiar. Odds are that you’ve lived that every single moment of your waking life — and you’ve dreamt of quitting to write a book, record an album or to just regain your dignity.
“Dreams,” which I wrote about three weeks ago possessed a pent up frustration over ambitions, hopes and a life that seem indefinitely stalled from some larger, unmoving (and unrelenting), outside force and not having an idea as to what would be the best thing to do next; so the song’s narrator winds up sitting inert and inactive on the sidelines out of fear of fucking everything up — and yet, hating himself for his inability to do anything at all. And despite the song’s desperation and hopelessness, there’s a subtle sense of hope; that things will get better and that somehow life will push you in the direction you need to be going even if you were unaware of it. Sonically, the song was reminiscent of The Smiths and 80s post-punk as it paired bitter and confused sentiments with anthemic hooks, layers of shimmering guitar and driving rhythms.
Wasted Life’s latests single “Deadly Ill” may arguably be one of the more deceitfully straightforward post-punk songs on the album, as the anthemic hooks the band seems to specialize in are paired with thundering and propulsive drumming, angular guitar chords and an urgent desperation of someone who seems to be at the end of their rope with everyone and everything. But the irony at the core of the song is that the song’s narrator is trapped between a terrible certainty and an unknowable, unpredictable uncertainty. If you’ve been there the song feels as though it’s talking about your own personal experience in some way.
The last few days have been insanely busy in the JOVM world — and as a result I haven’t been able to post as much as I would have liked; however, it’s been a fun weekend of a lot of live music from all over the world and time spent with some very dear friends. Naturally, there are a lot of photos and stuff but expect a ton of stuff over the next couple of weeks . . .
In any case, as you all know, I receive quite a bit of emails from an incredibly diverse array of artists, labels, publicity firms, band managers and other folks from all over the world. I recently received an email from London-based quintet Blank Bibles. The British quintet’s latest single “Abigail West” sounds as though it draws heavily from The Smiths as shimmering guitar chords, propulsive drumming, soaring strings and anthemic hooks are paired with plaintive and lovelorn vocals. Unsurprisingly, the Abigail West at the heart of the song seems to be one of the loveliest women in the entire world — the sort of woman that you’d happily sing and dance in the street without a care in the world.
As the story goes, Flower‘s frontman and primary songwriter Jack Fowler wrote the band’s forthcoming album Waste of Life while in the middle of a holding pattern. Although he had a rather busy year as the frontman of exwhy, with the band signing to Other People Records and touring with Pujol and Knox Hamilton, Fowler desperately wanted to focus on revealing his vulnerable side; in fact, the album is inspired largely by Fowler’s own experience of being an office drone. As Fowler explains in press notes “I was working a pretty decent office job and doing absolutely nothing beyond working and getting depressed. I was just spinning my wheels and growing bored and really depressed. I was struggling with talking to people, being social at all. That’s the core of this album—anxiety and not being sure how to define yourself. ”
Waste of Life‘s latest single “Dreams” possesses a pent up frustration over ambitions, hopes and a life that seem indefinitely stalled from some larger, unmoving (and unrelenting), outside force and not having an idea as to what would be the best thing to do next; so the song’s narrator winds up sitting inert and inactive on the sidelines out of fear of fucking everything up — and yet, hating himself for his inability to do anything at all. And despite the song’s desperation and hopelessness, there’s a subtle sense of hope; that things will get better and that somehow life will push you in the direction you need to be going.
Sonically, the band pairs bitter and confused sentiment and anthemic hooks with layers of shimmering guitar and driving rhythms in a song that sounds as though it draws influence from The Smiths and 80s post-punk. Much like the previous post, Flower’s sound is something that should sound warmly familiar to anyone who grew up in the 80s — but it manages to place that sound and feeling in high contemporary context, proving that the more things change, the more things wind up the same.
Comprised of Matt Miller (guitar, lead vocals), Sean Glassman (guitar, vocals and keys), Brian d’Alessandro (drums, vocals and keys) and Paolo Codega (bass, vocals), the Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet Coastgaard can trace their origins to when the band’s founding members d’Alessandro and Miller first began playing together in Sons of Huns back in 2009. Sons of Huns eventually split up but d’Alessandro and Miller continued playing with other. d’Alessandro and Miller recruited Glassman and Codega to flesh out the band’s sound.
Over the past couple of years, the Brooklyn-based quartet has seen increasing attention across the blogosphere and on this site for a jangling, guitar pop sound that draws heavily from 60s surfer rock and 90s alt rock — and in a way that’s reminiscent of Raccoon Fighter and Vampire Weekend, The Smiths and others.
“A Well Adjusted Man,” the first single off Coastgaard’s forthcoming sophomore full-length Devil on the Balcony pairs upbeat jangling guitar pop with lyrics that follow the inner monologue of a man who vacillates between brooding self-reflection and self-assured potency which gives the song a subtle noir-ish feel. Interestingly enough, the song is arguably the most cinematic song the band has released to date; in fact, I can envision the song as part of the soundtrack of an art film that focuses on alienation and the difficulty of connecting with another.
Last night, I learned that JOVM has had readers and viewers from over 117 countries across the world — this year. 117! I’m honored, flattered and incredibly humbled that my childhood obsession with music and my labor of love have become a part of so many people’s lives. With 2015 coming to a close, I want to thank you, dear friends for letting me come into your screen and hopefully bring a little bit of joy, wonder and meaning into your lives. And if I’ve done that, I’ve been wildly successful in ways that I never would have dreamt.
This month’s playlist comes a couple of days early, but don’t let that faze you much. In typical JOVM fashion, the December playlist is wildly eclectic — and touches upon several decades of artists and songs both known and obscure. You’ll come across Eric B. and Rakim, R.E.M., Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Posies, Foo Fighters, The Smiths, JOVM mainstays The Black Angels, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Patsy Cline, Nancy Sinatra, The Fixx, Pearl Jam, INXS, The Verve, New Order, Big Daddy Kane, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson, Los Angeles‘ Line & Circle, shoegaze pioneers RIDE, the club-rocking sounds of Neon Indian, Cameo, Twin Limb, the fantastic Charles Bradley, Black Sabbath, and a tribute to Motorhead‘s Lemmy Kilmister. And that’s just off the top of my head. Enjoy!
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.
New Video: The Hauntingly Gorgeous and Nostalgic Video for Line and Circle’s “Like A Statue”
If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past three or four months you may recall that I’ve written about the Los Angeles-based quintet Line and Circle. Comprised of Brian J. Cohen (vocals, rhythm guitar), Eric Neujahr (guitar), Jon Engelhard (bass […]
Comprised of Michael Lemmo (guitar and vocals), Benjamin Borland (bass) and Kenny Cash (drums), the Los Angeles, CA-based alternative rock/indie rock trio LEMMO specialize in radio-friendly and anthemic power chord rock as you’ll hear on their latests single “Alright,” which interestingly enough bears an uncanny resemblance to Lifehouse‘s “Hanging By A Moment” — but with a shimmering bridge that sounds indebted to The Smiths, giving the song enough of an indie rock edge to have been played on 120 Minutes.
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 Audio: Native Sons, Shoegaze-Leaning, New Single “Pictures”
With members based in London UK and Brighton UK, the British indie rock trio Native Sons first caught my attention with the release of their first single “Humanise,” which was a breezy bit of Brit pop reminiscent of The Invisible Band-era Travis and […]
New Audio: Introducing the 80s-Inspired Sound of Melbourne, Australia’s Gold Class
Comprised of Adam Curley (vocals), Evan James Purdey (guitar), Jon Shub (bass) and Mark Hewitt (drums), Melbourne, Australia-based quartet Gold Class formed last year, and within a few months of their formation, they began to […]
New Video: Seapony’s Jangling, New Single “Couldn’t Be”
The Olympia, WA–based band Seapony received both national and international attention with the release of their first two full-length albums, Go With Me and Falling, and as a result the band wound up taking their sound based around the simple catchy […]
New Video: The Swooning Romanticism and 80s Post-Punk Revivalism of Communions’ “Forget It’s A Dream”
Comprised of brothers Martin and Mads Rehof, along with Jacob van Deurs Formann and Frederik Lind Köppen, the Danish quartet Communions have received both national and international attention across the blogosphere for shimmering and plaintive pop songs that sound […]