Tag: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Berlin’s Lemongrab Shares Strutting and Insouciant “Yoko”

Originally founded in Montréal, Lemomgrab — currently founding duo Gaëlle Cordeau (vocals) and Léonie Dishaw (guitar, vocals), along with Fritz Ali Hansen (bass) and Joris Bo Monty (drums) –quickly established their unique brand of punk-tinged garage rock with 2016’s self-released The Ones with the Brooms EP, 2019’s self-released, full-length debut It Doesn’t Sound Good But It Feels Awesome. In their early days, they played house shows, now-defunct DIY spaces, deep dives across Canada and later touring the US with Broncho back in 2019. The duo relocated to Berlin in 2020.

Following their move to Germany, the duo self-released 2021’s six-song, The Wet Album, which saw them further embracing a punk ethos. Their sophomore full-length 2024’s I Spy with My Little Eye was released through German label U-Bac Records and received praise from Vancouver’s Range Magazine and others. Since relocating to Berlin, they do have sharpened their sound amidst the European underground circuit, making a quick yet lasting impression in the international punk scene. Adding to a growing international profile, the band has made a run of the international festival circuit, paying sets at Berlin’s Synästhesie Fest; Paris’ Supersonic Block Party; Friedland, Germany’s Jenseits von Millionen; Calgary’s Sled Island; and Pop Montréal. They’ve also shared stages with L.A. Witch, BODEGA, Meatbodies, Das Beat, Cumgirl8 and Shame. And while in Berlin, the band expanded from a duo to a quartet with the addition of Fritz Ali Hansen (bass) and Joris Bo Monty (drums).

The Berlin-based outfit’s new 7-inch, Another Kind of Freedom is slated for a September 11, 22026 release through Mothalnd and Chrüsimüsi Records. The new effort reportedly sees the German-based quartet further cementing a sound that draws from an eclectic array of influences including The Stooges, The Clean, Pylon and Bikini Kill while being a cranky yet uplifting patchwork of songs. While each song is stylistically diverse, the material questions belief systems rooted in existential angst and witty social commentary informed by our dystopian hellscape.

Another Kind of Freedom‘s latest single “Yoko” is built around a insouciant and downright nonchalant, strutting groove and squiggling burts of guitar. Sonically seeming to channel Talking Heads: 77 and More Songs About Building and Food-era Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground and The Jim Carroll Band‘s Catholic Boy, “Yoko” is one-part school punk, one-part mutant disco that pays homage to Yoko Ono while calling out misogyny and criticizing the superficiality of the male gaze. The song points out that Yoko Ono was not just misunderstood as an artist and person, but that she was has long been incorrectly blamed for The Beatles breakup.

“‘Yoko’ came from a discussion about how we repeatedly had this annoying conversation with men who hate Yoko Ono and say she’s just ruining everything, laughing about her ‘screaming’ over Chuck Berry, Lemongrab’s Cordeau and Dishaw explain. “‘Yoko’ is a song that decenters the male ego as the measure of experience and plays with the notion of who holds the narrative. It’s not anymore about if someone is Paul or John, but Yoko or John, putting them both on equal terms. Inspiration came from late 70s post-punk music like Delta 5 and Au Pairs and we riffed on this idea which all came together when Fritz found the perfect bass groove.”

Filmed by Gaëlle Cordeau and Léonie Dishaw, the accompanying video for “Yoko” follows the pair as they set out on an adventure to visit the grave of German singer/songwriter, actor and model Christa Päffgen, a.k.a. Nico.

The German-based outfit will be embarking on a European Union tour to close out 2026. Check out the tour dates below.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yasiin Bey Shares a Cognito-Filmed, Directed and Edited Visual for “Priority”

Originally released on Downtown Records back in 2009, a decade after his celebrated and beloved solo debut, Black on Both Sides, Yasiin Bey‘s sophomore album The Ecstatic was widely regarded as his strongest work in years. The album earned near-universal praise for its lyrical breath and eclectic production and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album, anchored around a globe-spanning sound shaped by a collection of visionary producers including Madlib, J. Dilla, Oh No, Preservation, Mr. Flash, The Neptunes‘ Chad Hugo and Georgia Anne Muldrow. The album also featured guest spots from Slick Rick and Talib Kweli.

The acclaimed and beloved emcee recently teamed up with Rhymesayers Entertainment, who will release a re-issue of The Ecstatic on all physical formats on tomorrow, August 14, 2026. This reissue marks the first time Yasiin Bey’s landmark sophomore album has been made available for worldwide distribution in over 15 years. The reissue brings the album’s jazz, soul and Middle Eastern-inspired sound back to the analog format, allowing listeners to experience tracks like “Supermagic,” and the Grammy Award-nominated “Casa Bey” with the warmth and depth the production deserves.

Among the physical format variants of The Ecstatic is a deluxe package pressed on double LP 180-gram black vinyl, and a translucent red 7″ vinyl single featuring the previously unreleased bonus tracks “The Size” and “The Tournament.” The reissue package will also include a 120-page hardcover book, designed and laid out by Frolab featuring photos from legendary filmmaker and photographer Cognito, who documented a two-year span of Yasiin Bey creating and promoting the original 2009 release, along with lyric quotes and some of his handwritten notes from the era. And of course, all vinyl orders will receive instant digital downloads of the full album. Fans are also encouraged to visit CasaBey.com for news and special announcements from Yasiin Bey, as well as The Ecstatic apparel.

The album will also be available through exclusive streaming partner Quboz.

To celebrate the release of the reissue, the acclaimed and beloved emcee shared a new, Cognito-directed video for album track “Priority” featuring never before seen footage of Yasiin behind the scenes in the studio, on the road and more. I turned 30 that year, so looking at this footage of a young Yasiin Bey is very much like looking back into my entire 30s. “After culling images that would eventually make it into the deluxe edition photobook + vinyl, I created a music video for ‘Priority’ too,” Cognito says. ” I used clips pulled from over 70 hours of mini DV footage I captured during those years – from the first studio visit in LA when yasiin was recording the album, to press appearances for the initial release, to out on the road for The Ecstatic Tour across the US and all the way to South Africa.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dummy Shares Hypnotic and Mind-Bending “Full Spectrum Dominance”

Los Angeles-based outfit Dummy — Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, Joe Trainor and Lance Umble — will be releasing their fourth studio album, do you love the color of the sky on October 16, […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Two Lush and Soulful Tunes from Zurich’s Okvsho

Zurich-based sibling duo Okvsho — Georg and Christoph Kiss — will be releasing their fourth album Frozen Flashes on September 18, 2026 through Current Moves. Recorded between Zurich and London, Frozen Flashes reportedly find the […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Black Doldrums Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Repetition”

London-based post punk trio Black Doldrums founding duo Sophie Landers (vocals, drums) and Kevin Gibbard (vocals, guitar) with newest member Matt Holt (bass) — will be releasing their third studio album Repetition Compulsion on November 13, 2026 through Fuzz Club. Deriving its title from a psychological concept first explored and named by Freud, the recently announced album is the final part of the London-based band’s State of Mind Trilogy, a three-album exploration of the psychological forces that shape identity, memory and human connection which began with their debut, 2022’s Dead Awake and 2024’s In Limerence. At the heart of all of their work is the creative and personal relationship between the band’s founding duo of Gibbard and Landers, whose relationship forms the emotional foundation for the forthcoming album — and the lens through which its themes are explored. As Gibbard explains, “These songs are either about Sophie, for Sophie, or inspired by her.”

Thematically, the 11-song album reportedly sees the London-based trio exploring how repetitive patterns and behaviors shape intimate relationships, collective memory, politics and wellbeing in a way that’s both deeply personal and quietly universal. Through evocative songwriting and cinematic production, Gibbard says “the album invites listeners to confront the echoes of the past while questioning whether those patterns can ever truly be broken.”

Inspired by 80s gothic post punk, synth pop, darkwave and the film scores of John Carpenter and Vangelis, Black Doldrums build on the emotional and sonic foundations of these influences to create something cinematic, modern and completely their own. Each of Repetition Compulsion‘s 11-songs has been crafted with intention, with the band balancing darkness with beauty to create a sod that’s melodic, broodingly atmospheric and with emotional depth. Listeners should expect to hear layers of analog synths, chorus pedal-soaked guitar and driving rhythms paired with an expansive production that gives each arrangement a sense of massive, cinematic scale. Rather than relying on nostalgia, the album presents post-punk as a living, ever-evolving form, with the band embracing atmosphere without sacrificing melody, introspection without loss of momentum and darkness without abandoning hope.

Repetition Compulsion‘s first single “Repetition” is a brooding dirge-like tune built around swirling, atmospheric synths, a slashing riff and a relentless motorik pulse beneath Gabbard’s icy baritone and Landers’ yearning backing vocal. While sonically nodding at Joy Division, Molchat Doma and PLOHO, the song as Gibbard explains that the song “. . . came from an idea to challenge ourselves to write something around one riff and something dirge-like. It also fit the theme of the album and the topic of repetition by literally experimenting with repetition in the musical sense. The opening line  – ‘is your mind split in two‘ – is something taken from our conversations on our many long walks around London where Sophie was talking about the psychological term splitting. It seemed to fit the feel of the song and theme of the album so much so it now opens up both the album and our live shows. I consider it very much Sophie’s song because she was the source of inspiration and that’s why we have her backing vocals fairly prominent to create a dual vocal effect. I also had the after-thought to have Sophie mime the first line in the video which is actually her line anyway.”

Directed by the band’s founding duo, the accompanying video for “Repetition” is a sleek, cinematic and brooding visual that touches upon the song’s themes of psychological — and at points, physical — splitting.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Crá Croí Return with Brooding and Atmospheric “Lord of the Wild”

Over the past roughly 18 months, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering County Cork-based duo Crá Croí. The duo — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — who derive their name from the Gaelic phrase for “heartache” or vexation of spirit” have employed a fiercely DIY ethos firmly establishing a sound that blends elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars, and sharp, hook-driven vocals.

The JOVM mainstays’ work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapse and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors.

Now, as you might recall, the Irish duo’s self-produced, 12-song, full-length debut, Tá brón orm is slated for an October 30, 2026. The album will feature 12 completely new tracks, but they’ve managed to build buzz for themselves and the album with a handful of standalone singles, including “Radiation Romance,” “Fires At Dawn,” “Feeding The Fear,” and “Lost In The Electric Blood,” and “Flesh Machines.”

Their latest single “Lord of the Wild” simultaneously builds upon a sound heavily influenced by Joy Division and Interpol — but while seeing the band add a subtly atmospheric quality. The song manages to be rooted in both the modern and the ancient, with the song making references to mythology and natural phenomena.

“The mythology of Cernunnos ‘the hunter’ or ‘the horned one’ plays a central role in the songs lyrics,” the duo explain. “Elemental forces that guard sacred groves and ancient places are all around us. The “wandering king” being called home represents the soul’s reunion with nature, humanity reconnecting with something primal we’ve forgotten. A hymn to our sacred wilderness.”

The accompanying visual was created by the band and fittingly features forest imagery, ancient headstones, ritual sites and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: PUREST FORM Shares Bruising and Feral “ANIMAL”

Los Angeles-based dance punks PUREST FORM — Story Beeson (vocals), Madi Woodward (guitar, programming) and Riley Oikawa-Dahlson (bass) — draws on the individual members’ respective backgrounds in hardcore punk, and their shared love of industrial and techno, blending the intensely heavy with the playful and sensual.

Within two years, the Los Angeles-based trio have quickly developed a reputation for a must-see, chaotic live show while landing opening slots for Boy Harsher, Chat Pile, King Woman, Sextile and a growing list of others. 2024’s self-titled EP was released to praise from Stereogum, dublab, FLAUNT, Consequence, BrooklynVegan, Revolver, Treble, New Noise and more.

Building upon a growing profile, the trio signed to Dais Records, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated third EP, the six-song RESISTANCE. The EP is reportedly an anarchist assault on the system, fueled by their collective anger amidst our late-stage capitalist dystopia and a year of bitter, nonstop trauma over the past year in Los Angeles, including the wildfires and ICE raids. “Resistance, less of an idea, more of an absolute action that has to be taken,” Story Beeson asserts.

RESISTANCE EP reportedly builds upon their self-titled EP with the forthcoming EP’s material reportedly being more agile and charged up with structural jumps and hard left turns, confronting sonic and societal constructs. Nodding at death metal and acid house, the material is built with serrated guitar riffs, fractured breakbeats, forceful bass lines and body-quaking feedback beneath Beeson’s urgent, feral howls. “We decided to just take it to the next level with this one,” PUREST FORM’s Madi Woodward says. “It’s like a unification of all the music that we love and feel. And it makes sense to us. If it sounds good, we don’t care where it comes from.” 

Woodward continues,  “We set out to do something and say something. It did feel cathartic.”Beeson adds, “The nature and actions of our country are overwhelming, I can’t get away from the feeling of ‘what can we do to resist this at all costs?’ We have very radical fantasies across the board, making music that isn’t talking about what’s happening right now just feels unimportant to us. We are willing to sacrifice whatever to make music that is honest. It’s both important and fun to have a project where it’s just like a complete fuck you. And also a complete desire to unify.”

The EP was recorded sporadically throughout the course of last year, beginning while Beeson had been evacuated from her home. Sketches started on the computer, before open-ended sessions with their longtime collaborator and producer, Andrew Oswald. “A helpful and needed distraction during a pretty bleak year for the world. It became the one thing that felt good to us,” says Riley Oikawa-Dahlson. “We explore some dark headspaces, but it’s also dance music.”

The EP’s latest single, live show staple and EP opening track “ANIMAL” is a bruising and primal, mosh pit friendly ripper anchored around serrated guitars, relentless thump beneath Story Beeson’s feral howls. The song simultaneously evokes the unending horror, despair and rage of our moment while seemingly channeling Ministry and Astro Creep-era White Zombie.

Directed by the band’s Story Beeson, the accompanying video is a righteous condemnation of constant surveillance world while capturing the band’s furious performance. “The video takes on the horror of surveillance. While using a lot of throwback technology, mostly to pay homage to its influence – Peter Christopherson’s video for Ministry’s ‘Over The Shoulder’, it very much intends to communicate how more modern technology is being used for violence against our communities and humanity as a whole,” Beeson explains. “It fits with the concept of ‘ANIMAL’: whether the nature is sexual or simply a desire to exist, we deserve to have freedom and we must take that freedom back.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alex Amor Shares Heartbroken Yet Buoyant and Anthemic “Inside”

Rising Scottish singer/songwriter and musician Alex Amor has three EPs under her belt, 2021’s debut, Love Language, 2022’s The Art of Letting Go and 2023’s Super Sonic, all of which have received praise from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, Wonderland, Notion, 1883 Magazine, The Skinny, Ones to Watch, The Sunday Mail, and The Scotsman — and she has received airplay from BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Sian Eleri. 

Building upon a growing profile across the region, Amor has made a run of the UK festival circuit, playing sets at TRNSMT, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Dot to Dot. She has also toured across the region, playing on bills with the likes of Good Neighbours, Liang Lawrence, Gretta Ray, Swim Deep, VLURE and a list of others. 

Amor’s highly anticipated full-length debut Heavenly Bodies is slated for an August 21, 2026 through New York-based label VERO Music. Written and recorded between London and Glasgow with Peter Brien, Baz Kaye and Karma Kid, the album’s material is heavily informed by meditation, rune reading and the work of Swedish mystic Hilma of Klint. Weaving together celestial imagery, spirituality and the vast emotional terrain of human connection, the album’s material reflects Amor’s fascination with cosmic symbolism and the belief that personal experiences mirror the rhythms of the universe. Sonically, the album is a decided evolution from the raw indie charge of the rising Scottish artist’s earlier work as the album features diaristic, intimate and confessional songwriting is paired with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths and slow-burning arrangements. 

The album will feature the previously released “Avalanche” and the album’s final pre-release single “Inside,” which comes on the heels of festival appearances at this year’s Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape Festival, Footsteps Festival and opening slots with Liang Lawrence and Prima Queen. “Inside” is a twangy New Wave-tinged bop that showcases Amor’s unerring knack for pairing catchy hooks and shout-along worthy choruses with introspective, lived-in lyrics. While buoyant and rousingly anthemic, the song is anchored in a complicated mix of loss of innocence and faith, weary, heartbroken exhaustion and of devastating loss that lingers and reverberates throughout your life.

Originally written as a sprawling poem, “Inside” arrived in the studio with producer Baz Kaye determined to preserve every word Amor had written. With a run time of 5:30, the song features what may arguably be some of Amor’s most earnest and devastatingly honest writing with an defiantly upbeat arrangement, informed by the optimism Kaye and co-writer Peter Brien carried back from that summer’s Glastonbury Festival.

“It’s about coming to terms with compounded grief, generational trauma and taking a stark look at one of the coping mechanisms that defined much of my twenties: dissociation,” Amor explains. “Pulling away from connection altogether to avoid the pain of needing someone, missing someone, or losing someone. Part of love is accepting loss, making space for grief, and finding the courage to feel it all. It’s a song about connection, the choice to be vulnerable, and learning that the only way through grief is to let yourself feel it.”

The accompanying video follows a simple conceit: Amor and her band performing in the corner of a studio space — or an elevator. It nods at early MTV-era videos with a modern, frenetic sensibility.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bingo Club Shares Breezy “Bingo Twingo”

Paris-based duo Bingo Club describe their ethos as a club that demands no rules for entry, that’s friendly and where everyone knows your name, and where the club never closes and there’s no dress code.

Their second album is slated for an October 7, 2026 release through Fuzo Music. But in the meantime, the album’s latest single “Bingo Twingo,” is a summery and mischievous Italo-disco song anchored around a strutting, funky dance floor friendly bass line, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar-driven hooks and dueling boy-girl vocals. It’s perfect for the beach, for the rooftop party — and for the club.

Directed by Romain Winkler and Bingo Club, the accompanying video is a bright and trippy visual that capture she buoyant, breezy vibe of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Love Spells Returns with Flirty “Don’t Touch”

Sir Teagan Harris is the Houston-born creative mastermind behind the rising, solo recording project Love Spells. At 18, Harris poured his passion for love into music, manifesting a career out of ambition and drive, while battling homelessness for years. Eventually, he wound up in California, where he lived with a friend he met online, traveling to different music studios everyday to perfect his sound. After six months, he returned to Houston and received a call from Kevin Abstract, who invited him to work on his most recent album, last year’s Bluish.

Working on Kevin Abstract’s Blush connected Harris to his now frequent collaborators Dominic Fike and Deb Never. That life changing experience pushed Harris to return to Los Angeles and work on his highly-anticipated Love Spells debut, LOVE IS THE LAW. Released this past Friday through RCA Records, the rising Houston-based artist’s debut album seems him working with a talented cast of collaborators including Danny Parra, Boy Deco, Brad Hale, Rodaidh McDonald, Alex Craig, and Rick Nowels to create material that recalled his nights at Numbers, a beloved Houston area dance club and safe heaven for alternative communities.

While spending time at Numbers, Harris frequently danced to 70s, 80s and New Wave, and he specifically wanted to inject that particular genre-blurring feeling into his work, seeking out similar spaces in Los Angeles and leaning heavily on those eras in the studio. Movies like Dirty Dancing and Footlose were also sources of inspiration, helping the Houston-based artist and his collaborators craft a “theatrical yet authentic” feeling.

Our lives revolve around love, it governs nearly every aspect of human life,” Harris says of the record. “LOVE IS THE LAW is a grand declaration, it’s in your face and there’s nothing to hide. The album title means exactly what it says – to hold love above everything else. That message is something I’ll declare for the rest of my life.”

LOVE IS THE LAW will include the previously released “Crutch,” “Keep It To Yourself,““Maybe I Still Love You” and the album’s latest single “Don’t Touch.” “Don’t Touch” is sultry and seductive bit of honky tonk-inspired pop built around a strutting and twangy acoustic guitar and shimmering pedeal steel beneath Harris’ aching falsetto. Lyrically nodding at Prince‘s “Raspberry Beret” and The Georgia Satellites‘ “Keep Your Hands To Yourself,” “Don’t Touch” features a narrator, who tells a story of a meet cute with a mysterious stranger, who knows the art of seduction — and gets what she wants.

Directed and choreographed by Shay Latukolan, the accompanying video for “Don’t Touch” is set in a half-filled Texas honky tonk and features dance and movement as a form of seduction between the video’s incredibly attractive central couple.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal-based JOVM Mainstay Naomi Teams Up with SLM on Sultry, Club Banger “Hershey Kiss”

2026 has been a busy year for Montréal-based JOVM mainstay Naomi: She has continued to be wildly prolific while entering a bold new era working with French producer Elior Chaudagne, who produced “Univers.”

Following the success of “Univers,” the French Canadian artist returns with “Hershey Kiss,” which features Anglophone Montréal-based emcee SLM (pronounced “SLIM”). Built around a propulsive, dance-floor filling calypso-styled riddim, “Hershey Kiss” is a sultry, club banger that’s rooted in Naomi and SLM’s swaggering and defiant, girlboss energy.

“Hershey Kiss” can be trace its origins a back a little bit: Elior Chaudagne, had been pitching the Montréal-based artist an energetic beat inspired by bouyon, a Caribbean music genre that’s currently red hot right now. However, Naomi hadn’t feel confident enough to tackle the genre while adding her own touch — until SLM joined her in the studio.

The two Montréal-based artist’s collaboration, much like the song goes back a little bit: Naomi and SLM have long moved around in the same circles. But despite sharing similar sociocultural references and background — Naomi has Haitian and Guyanese roots; SLM is Guyanese. But they hadn’t worked together until “Hershey Kiss.”

Their initial artistic encounter felt natural — to the point of being seemingly symbiotic. Each artist spontaneously wrote their lyrics on the spot in a matter of a few minutes and recorded their part in practically a single take, without retouching or re-dubs. Throughout the song, they play with the conventions of bouyon with references to the ballroom scene — in both sound and energy. And as a result, there’s a raunchy, uninhibited and cheekily ribald energy to the proceedings.

Directed by Wynn Holmes and Naomi Hilaire, the accompanying video was shot at the Funhub Arcade on Cathcart Street in Downtown Montréal. The video drops the viewer into a sweaty and sultry party featuring twenty dancers performing choreography created by Naomi and Raphaël Gagnon. The video captures the raunchy energy of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Returns with Jangling “I Got A Pill”

Brossard, QC-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rishi Dihr has spent the past two decades blurring the lines between Western pysch pop and Indian classical tradition. What began back in 2006 as a quest for trasncendental sound has evolved into a singlar, self-contained vision. Operating out of his Montréal home studio, Sacred Sounds Dihr has estalbihed himself as studio autuer, producing, engineering and mixing his band Elephant Stone‘s increasingly complex and cineamtic output.

The JOVM mainstays — Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) – will be releasing their 10th albun, ASHA on August 28, 2026 through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl is avaialble for pre-order through Little Cloud Records. Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.

While the band’s reputation has long-been built on airtight pop craftsmanship and spiritual exploration, their most recent work psoesses a new, raw intensity forged through Dihr’s lengthy history collaborating with The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beck and hte psych rock supergroup MIEN.

Elephant Stone remains at the forefront of the modern movement, constantly deconstructing the past to find something visceral, haunting, and undeniably human in the present.

ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll,” and its third and latest single “I’ve Got A Pill.” “I’ve Got A Pill” is a jangling and deceptively upbeat tune that asks the listener to cede control; to take that pill to forget their pain; to take that pill to stop thinking so goddamn much and let someone else do the thinking . . . But just underneath the sweet wooing is something unsettling and menacing.

Elephant Stone frontman Rishi Dihr explains, “It’s about demagogues, the populist playbook. Leaders who feed on people’s fear and offer an easy fix. The pill. Take it and your problems go away. Except it doesn’t work like that. It’s control dressed up as relief.”

Directed by Adam Traynor and featuring handcrafted puppets by Diablo Puppets, the accompanying video manages to embody the song’s false promise of escape, the video follows Futzy, Radis, and Mascot in a surreal world that involves a mind-bending trip into Fraggle Rock-styled world that quickly turns into a paranoid nightmare.
 

“The lyrics to ‘I Got A Pill’ woo and warn all at once,” Adam Traynor explains. “I wanted to put the sweetness of that voice into the mouth of a Tony the Tiger-type mascot with a special breakfast gift for kids that would be sure to kick off a trip into a sugary Wonderland, a cardboard Oz, an awe-inducing game-world of artificial colours, a Dark Crystal quest for power, a Soylent Green feeding frenzy.”
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Josh da Costa Returns with Shimmering “Shireen”

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. (Unsurprisingly, I wrote about Regal Degal on this site back in 2013. Yes, this site’s early days y’all.)

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. (I saw CMON open for Jorge Elbrecht back in 2018! So I’m familiar with da Costa and his work.)

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 Friday 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 will include the previously released, shimmering electro pop ballad “96 Year Old Girl” and the album’s last pre-release single, “Shireen.” “Shireen” is a a bit of XTC and Flying Nun Records-like jangle pop, anchored around a shimmering 12 string guitar and da Costa’s unerring knack for crafting a remarkably catchy hook. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Shireen” sounds as though it could have been released in 1983 or so — but with a subtly modern production.

Directed by Ambar Navarro, the accompanying video for “Shireen” features da Costa as a sort of unseen narrator to an 80s teen movie that quickly turns into a campy horror movie featuring a blood-thirsty vampire/werewolf.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: C.O.F.F.I.N. Shares Bruising and Anthemic Ode to Pessimism “Think Bad”

Hilariously named, acclaimed and rising Sydney-baseed metalheads/pub rockers Children of Finland Fighting in Norway (C.O.F.F.I.N.) — Ben Portnoy (lead vocals, drums), Abijah Radio (lead guitar, vocals), Aaron Moss (guitar, vocals) and Steven “Kosty” Kostogiannis (bass, vocals) — through relentlessly curiosity, work ethic and commitment to their craft has risen from a Manly Beaches, Australia upstart outfit to become one of their homeland’s most respected contemporary rock bands.

Since their formation, C.O.F.F.I.N. have shared stages with Amyl and the Sniffers, Viagra Boys and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, helping them develop a reputation as one of Australia’s integral, and must-see live acts. And building upon a growing profile, 2023’s Australia Stops earned an ARIA Award nomination for Best Rock/Heavy Metal Album, along with a National Live Music Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Album.

The rising Aussie quartet have spent years refining their craft, and understandably, their work began to focus on important social issues like climate action, indigenous rights, gender politics, and more. The sheer power of their musical response to the social injustices we face today has become a key element that C.O.F.F.I.N. fans across the globe have recognized and love.

The Aussie quartet’s fourth album, the Declan Mehrtens-produced Out in Oslo, which features vocals co-produced by Frenzal Rhomb‘s Jason Whalley is salted for a September 18, 2026 release through p(doom) records. The album reportedly captures the band at their most expansive and refined: While retaining the grit and energy that they’re known for, the album sees the band broadening their sonic palette with a greater sense of dynamics, richer textures and some of their most adventurous songwriting to date. Thematically, the material explores ideas around Australian identity, community, environmentalism, injustice and their homeland’s connection with the rest of the world.

Out in Oslo‘s latest single “Think Bad” is a bruising ripper that channels Highway to Hell-era AC/DC, built around enormous riffs, thunderous drumming, raise-your-beer-in-the-air-and-shout-along worthy hook and chorus. But the song is underpinned by a hilarious irony — negativity can sometimes be good for you. As the bards and philosophers from the Shaolin remind us, “you gotta protect your neck!’

 “’Think Bad’ describes the use of negativity to fuel forward motion. It’s about using hard thoughts as a compass, reminding yourself that not everything that feels good is good for you, while at the same time, understanding that the combined weight of cynicism and reckless behaviour can make the greatest losses,” C.O.F.F.I.N.’s Ben Portnoy explains.

Directed and edited by the band’s Ben Portnoy, the accompanying video follows the band as they goof around at a local amusement park while dressed as cowboys.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Returns with Menacing “They’ll Never Suspect Us”

Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — will be releasing their newest album, By accident, On purpose on October 16, 2026.

The album will include the previously released, broodingly atmospheric and introspective “Honestly, that’s enough honesty” and the album’s latest single “They’ll Never Suspect Us.” Continuing with a gorgeous and broodingly atmospheric production, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” is underpinned by a gleeful and downright giddy sense of malice.

Arguably, one of their darker songs lyrically to date, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” reframe the classic murder ballad into something more detached, swaggering and unsettling with a narrator who imagines the act — and then rubs the prospective victim’s face in the fact that no one will care about their demise. It’s a song perfect for those true crime shows many of us love watching, including yours truly.

The accompanying video was shot on VHS tape and includes tape fuzz, wavering and undulating imagery and more.