Tag: Tucson AZ

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mischievous, Genre Mashing Sounds of Orkestra Mendoza

“Caramelos,” featuring Salvador Duran is the first single off the band’s soon-to-be released album ¡Vamos A Guarachar! manages to possess a genre mashing style as you’ll hear the enormous tweeter and woofer rocking beats and synths of electronica, an impressive organ solo, the twangy pedal steel of country and western, a bit of mariachi here, a bit of mambo there, a bit of cumbia, a bit of of this and a bit of that in a playful and stomping song that doesn’t quite sound like anything you would have heard recently, and they do with a mischievous, swaggering, danceable song. It’s the sort of song that much like the work of El Dusty and others, should remind listeners that the music from the American/Mexican border may be some of the most sonically inventive and challenging music you’ll hear in contemporary music.

The recently released video was shot by Josh Harrison at Tuscon’s RBar and features the incredibly dapper dressed band performing the song in the bar behind an incredibly colorful backdrop.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site for the past couple of months, you may recall coming across a post or two about Tucson, AZ-based multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and producer Dmitri Manos, whose solo recording project American Monoxide has quietly built a profile for specializing in analog electronic instrumentals that manage to be somewhat abrasive, trashy and funky as hell such as on “Hot Lava Express,” the first single off his sophomore full-length Web Content. Sonically speaking, Manos paired industrial clang and clatter, boom-bap beats, tumbling electronic bloops, beeps and bleeps, scorching synths and Nile Rodgers-inspired funk guitar chords in an offbeat funky song that reminded me quite a bit of Tobacco.

Web Content‘s latest single “Get Into My Way” is a wobbling, shuffling and buzzing song with the sort of twangy alt-country, alt-folk, experimental pop sound reminiscent of Odelay-era Beck — but in this case, as though Beck had recorded the album on old, warped cassette tape, with a breezily narcoleptic feel and an incredibly catchy hook.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Whimsical Visuals for American Monoxide’s “Hot Lava Express”

Directed by Caleb Gutierrez, the recently released video for American Monoxide’s “Hot Lava Express” features a dream-like sequence that seems influenced by the visuals in Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” “Big Time” and “Digging in the Dirt” videos as the sequence employs the use of stop-action animation until the video’s protagonist wakes up and sees his friends hanging out at a barbecue in his backyard. It’s a whimsical and playful video that belies the song’s abrasive nature.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Dmitri Manos is a Tucson, AZ-based multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and producer, whose solo recording project American Monoxide has quietly built a profile for specializing in analog electronic instrumentals that manage to be somewhat abrasive, trashy and funky as you’ll hear on “Hot Lava Express,” the first single off his forthcoming sophomore full-length effort Web Content, a single that has the producer and multi-instrumentalist pairing industrial boom-bap beats, tumbling electronic bloops, beeps and bleeps, scorching synths, Nile Rodgers-inspired funk guitar chords to craft a song that’s simultaneously offbeat yet funky as hell.

Multiple labels are involved in the June 10, 2016 release — and it’s arguably the most complex release I’ve come across in the almost six year history of this site: the vinyl version of the album will be released through People In A Position To Know Recordings (PIAPTK), Solid Gold Records, Almost Halloween Time Records, Wooden Tooth Records, Shot By A Fan Records, Hocus Bogus Records, Lazy Boy Recording Company and Baby Gas Mask Records. All the labels pitched in on the cost of manufacturing with each label creating different packaging for their particular release — some labels plan on doing variations of the album cover art, while others are including bonus material such as special release cassettes, lathe cut albums, zines and posters, etc. The cassette will be released through PIAPTK and Wooden Tooth Records while the electronic version will be self-released.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past year or so, you may have come across a post on Tucson, AZ-based psych rock quintet of The Myrrors. Comprised of Nik Rayne, Grant Beyschau, Cody Schwartz, Connor Gallaher and Miguel Urbina, the members of the Tucson-based psych rock quintet have a long-held reputation for crafting dark, mysterious and drone-based psych rock that sounds as though it draws from The Black Angels‘ Directions to See a Ghost and the Silber Records catalog — and with the release of the quintet’s sophomore effort Arena Negra, the band rose to national prominence.

However, the band’s forthcoming third, full-length effort Entranced Earth is reportedly a radical change of sonic direction and songwriting approach as the material is much more subtle and ethereal as the band uses arrangements based around six and twelve string guitars, harmonium, tables, alto sax and bulbul tarang. In fact, Entranced Earth’s first single (and album title track) “Entranced Earth” is an instrumental composition that will further cement the quintet’s reputation for trippy and psychedelic-leaning drone; however, the song’s arrangement is comprised of gently undulating guitar and bass chords, background saxophone and flute notes coming in and out of the ether and it’s all propelled forward by persistent and rolling drumming that seem to keep the song from floating away.

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Nik Rayne, Grant Beyschau, Cody Schwartz, Connor Gallaher and Miguel Urbina, the Tucson, AZ-based quintet of The Myrrors have released efforts under dark and mysterious cloak – and on a certain level that shouldn’t […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Fronted by siblings, Robert and Rachel Kolar, the quintet of He’s My Brother She’s My SIster have won quite  bit of attention for a sound that’s happily genre-defying. In some way, this live footage of […]