JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of the iconic Dolly Parton.
Tag: women who kick ass
New Video: Julia Jacklin Returns with Anthemic “The Hardest Thing”
Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.
The album will include the previously released “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You),” the album’s closing track ” “I Wish” feat, Aussie folk sibling duo The Maes, and the album’s third single, “The Hardest Thing.” is a proudly heart-worn-on-sleeve anthemic ballad featuring a narrator, whose relationship on the brink, detailing a relationship at a crossroads — or about to peter out to an inevitable conclusion. Lyrically, the song is rooted in small, lived-in details that give the song a personal yet deeply universal touch.
Directed by Danny Cohen, the accompanying video was shot in one lengthy take and filmed from a helicopter winding through Melbourne’s skyline, gradually showcasing the acclaimed artist performing the song on top of skyscraper.
New Video: E. Lundquist Teams Up with JOVM Mainstay Kendra Morris on Upbeat “Wishing”
Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Borders is the creative mastermind behind E. Lundquist, a project that derives its name from a loving nod to his family lineage, bringing the focus back to his own story. With E. Lundquist, Borders specializes in a warmly cinematic sound rooted in Rhodes-driven soul jazz, funk, R&B, library records and live band groove and analog synth textures, reflecting a shift to an intimate, reflective and composer-led approach.
Borders’ forthcoming album Chasing My Reflections will touch upon themes of identity, resilience and self-reflection while featuring collaborations with Michael Damani, India Blue, Michael Edwards and JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris.
Chasing My Reflections‘ latest single “Wishing” features the Florida-born, New York-based JOVM mainstay’s effortlessly soulful croon over the sort of warm, buoyant, two-step-inducing neo-soul-like arrangement that would make the Soulquarians proud while being being a defiantly optimistic tune focused on the need to get back on your feet and get on with it, no matter how shitty everything seems.
“This song’s music had an overall upbeat, warm feel to it, so in writing it, I felt hopeful. . . .,” Kendra Morris says. “I’ve written plenty of sad songs, and it’s nice to just flip that sometimes. When Eric mentioned his inspiration behind the album and his working title at the time, ‘Reflections’, that got me thinking about my own perspective on life and struggling and how it’s great pushing forward and looking up rather than wallowing behind.”
Filmed and edited by Tony Delerme, the accompanying video for “Wishing” follows the JOVM mainstay walking down a brownstone-lined block rocking out to music on headphones, stopping to people watch before stopping at local bodega for snacks and hitting the subway. The video captures summertime in New York in a way that will bring a smile to New Yorkers faces.
Lyric Video: Sophia Bel Shares Vibey “Mood Ring”
Sophia Bel shares vibey “Mood Ring.”
Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Belinda Carlisle!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Belinda Carlisle’s 67th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, Madonna!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Madonna’s 68th birthday.
New Video: Sweeping Promises Returns with Roaring “Rapture, Or . . . “
Lawrence, KS-based duo and JOVM mainstays Sweeping Promises — Lira Mondal (vocals, bass, production) and Caufield Schnug (guitar, drums, production) — just released their thorn album You Say I Romanticize through Sub Pop.
Recorded over an 18-month period, You Say I Romanticize is a tribute to the chaos of creation and collaboration under shifting circumstances. Mondal and Schung found and tested themselves in their combination tour house and recording studio annually working on dozens of albums by other bands, hosting tour stops, planning shows and the like. After an immersive process of tracking and whittling down YSIR demos and carving out an idiosyncratic chamber recording method for the album’s deliberate and international wall-of-sound approach, the duo brought in touring drummer Spenser Gralla to play the album’s material as the band would on stage.
The album’s frenzied and passionate sound shines most in Modal’s vocal perforamnce. Where you might have heard a growl here and there on certain previously released Sweeping Promises trcks, the band’s frontwoman shouts, roars, hits tricky notes all over the place and shreds her throat throughout the album’s runtime.
YSIR takes the art-by-any-means-necessary ethos that Mondal and Schung have firmly established throughout their careers and turns the prompt upside down, landing on a personality epidemic that manifests across the album’s ten songs.
The JOVM mainstays’ third album includes the previously released “Cocoon,“Accent,” and it’s latest single “Rapture, Or . . .” “Rapture, Or. . . .” is a roaring and punchy apocalypse fantasy written with a defiant, plucky resolve that’s strangely sort of upbeat. It’s a song that’s perfectly suited for our contemporary hellscape fueled by greed, hatred and blood.
The duo explain, “‘Rapture, Or…’ we originally envisioned a sort of fallen monastic, mockingly devout, longing for a near-term judgment day (catch phrase: ‘I can’t wait for tomorrow’). The actual lyrics are scenario-adaptable, though, as apocalypse fantasies seemingly guide culture now, so you can’t blame us for finding a desire lane amid the ruins. It’s one of our poppier songs ever. We double-tracked Lira’s loud vocals in our tiled bathroom – our ‘cathedral’. A malfunctioning arp played the ascendant synth arpeggios, and the guitar on this one was improvised.”
Directed by Shawn Brackbill, the accompanying DIY-styled video is split between features the duo performing the song in a small studio wth a brewing end-of-times-like phenomenon — one that seems like part-storm, part-eclipse, part-nuclear explosion.
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: 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, […]
New Audio: The Womack Sisters Share Soulful and Heartbroken “Monster”
Rising Los Angeles-based sibling soul trio The Womack Sisters — Kucha, Zeimani and BG — can trace the origins of their careers to their childhood: The trio were singing before they could even walk. They grew up on stages and in studios across the globe, singing behind their parents, as well as their legendary uncle, Bobby Womack. And adding to The Womack Sisters’ remarkable pedigree, their grandfather was the iconic Sam Cooke.
No matter where they called home at the time — London, Thailand, Amsterdam, Kenya, West Virginia, The Bahamas — music and family were always a constant at the center of their lives. Of course, as the sisters grew up, each with their own respective journeys, experiences and heartaches, they managed to find their own voices and their own path.
Each member of the trio has their own individual vocal styling and timbre, but they playfully trade leads and effortlessly blend their harmonies perfectly in a way that only siblings can do.
Back in 2016, a mutual friend introduced The Womack Sisters to Daptone Records co-owner and producer Gabriel Roth, a.k.a. Bosco Mann, who heard them sing and fell quickly and deeply in love with their voices. Shortly after, they met, they went to Daptone’s Riverside, CA-based Penrose Studios to record their label debut, “If You Want Me“/”I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye).”
The rising Los Angeles trio’s long-awaited self-titled, full-length debut is slated for a Friday, August 14, 2026 through Daptone Records. The album will feature the previously released “Chauffeur” and the album’s latest single “Monster.” “Monster” is a slow-burning and heart-wrenching ballad rooted in a cinematic and old school-inspired arrangement and production. The song is about coming to terms with the devastating, emotional void left by unrequited love that features the siblings’ vocals expressing heartache, confusion, yearning and stubborn, determined pride within a turn of a phrase.
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.
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, Ronnie Spector!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 83rd anniversary of the birth of Ronnie Spector.
Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Whitney Houston!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 63rd anniversary of the birth of Whitney Houston.
