Tag: women who kick ass

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Club 8 Returns with Shimmering and Yearning “Born The Wrong Time”

Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8, which featured the Joy Division/New Order-meets-The Raveonettes-like “Something’s Wrong With My Head,” a woozily blissful and escapist song that continued a run of material dabbling in 80s New Wave nostalgia. 

The duo have been busy, releasing a single every month throughout the course of this year. including “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead” and “Staying Alive,” which I wrote about on this site.

The duo’s latest single “Born The Wrong Time” is a slow-burning and dreamy track that reminds me a bit of a lush synthesis of JOVM mainstays Still Corners, The Sundays and Souvlaki-era Slowdive paired with Konstedt’s yearning vocal, nostalgic longing for a seemingly simpler time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 54th Birthday, Missy Elliott!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Missy Elliott’s 54th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Evelyn “Champagne” King!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Evelyn “Champagne” King’s 65th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: L’Eclair Teams Up WIth girl named GOLDEN on Languorous and Glittering “THE GLITCH”

With recorded output that includes 2018’s full-length debut, Polymood, 2019’s Sauropoda, 2020’s Noshtta EP and 2021’s Confusions, the acclaimed Swiss-based group L’Eclair, founded and led by Bulgarian-born siblings Stef and Yavov Lilov firmly established themselves as masters of mind-bending, cosmic-leaning groove. 

Along with two live sessions for KEXP, which amassed over 900,000 views combined, the Swiss-based group have built up an international following, while landing on the playlists of adventurous listeners and DJs seeking deep grooves. 

Meticulously crafted over the past four years, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays, highly-anticipated and recently released fourth album Cloud Drifter is a decided and radical departure from the Belgian group’s long-held instrumental approach with the album’s material featuring vocals from a wide and eclectic array of frequent collaborations that they’ve worked with over the past few years, including including Pink Slifu, Girl Named GOLDEN, Gelli Haha, A Ghost Column, and more. 

Having toured with The Cinematic Orchestra and W.I.T.C.H. — including writing and recording W.I.T.C.H.’s 2023 effort Zango and The Cinematic Orchestra’s forthcoming album this year, as well as production work with Varnish La Piscine and Maston, the Lilov brothers have assembled a vast network of likeminded musicians. And across the entire album, they keenly curate a cohesive vision incorporating many disparate contributions. 

In the lead-up to Cloud Drifter‘s release, I’ve written about three of the album’s singles:

CLOUD DRIFTER’S latest single “The GLITCH” feat. girl named GOLDEN is anchored around a slow-burning, languorous disco groove that serves as a lush bed for girl named GOLDEN’s dreamily yearning cooing.

The accompanying video for “THE GLITCH” features kaleidoscopically edited super 8 filmed footage of girl named GOLDEN performing at The Sultan Room, life on tour and in the studio with the acclaimed Belgians.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Black Cashmere Shares Woozy “In My Head”

Emerging, Venice, CA-based indie duo Black Cashmere — Devon Sellers and Harry Weil — will be releasing their debut EP, In My Head in July. Recorded at Dream House Studios, the six-song EP introduces their remarkably close creative partnership while exploring their love of retro sounds, soulful house and jazz-tinged cadences.

The EP’s first single, EP title track “In My Head” features Sellers’ sultry, jazz-tinged cadence with a woozy production and arrangement, which sounds a bit like a synthesis of psych pop, neo-soul and trip-hop — in a way that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays The Lovelines. The song’s narrator describing swooning and yearning for a love interest, while still recognizing that they’re still stuck in their head.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slow Crush Shares Stormy and Swooning “While You Dream Vividly”

After a frenetic and overwhelming touring schedule to support their first two albums, 2018’s Aurora and 2021’s Hush, the acclaimed Belgian shoegazers Slow Crush — Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Frederik Meeuwis, Jelle Ronsmans (guitar) and Nic Placlé — took a couple years off from touring, which allowed the quartet the space to breathe and create new material.

Slow Crush’s highly-anticipated third album, Thirst is slated for an August 29, 2025 release through Pure Noise Records. Recorded at Southampton, UK-based The Ranch, the Lewis Johns-produced album reportedly sees the band’s dynamic textures, propulsive rhythms and gauzy riffs shimmer as brightly as ever — but the album sees the band adding a bit more grit and grime to their sound. The album features arguably the heaviest riffs they’ve ever recorded, as well as some of Holliday’s dreamiest and most vulnerable vocals to date. During the recording process, there were sons she couldn’t record without dissolving into tears.

Thirst‘s overacting theme is what Holliday describes as “the romance of being with a loved one.” Although being away from loved ones for long periods of time might put a strain on that relationship, the return can feel euphoric and the connection can be feel almost like it were brand new. Throughout the album, the members of Slow Crush set out to create the feeling of being tethered yet simultaneously weightless, absorbed in the beauty of quiet moments with that special someone.

“We want people to let themselves go and feel embraced by the music, so that they can experience it in 4D,.” Slow Crush’s Isa Holliday explains. “That’s what we hear a lot from people who come to see us live, or people who’ve listened to our previous albums, is that we take them to another dimension. I think that’s something that we miss in this day and age with everything that’s going on in the world, making us very aware of everything outside, but not allowing us to just be in the moment as much as you should. We want to let people take a moment for themselves and let the music take them wherever they would like to go.”

Thirst‘s first single “While You Dream Vividly” is a slow-burning and hypnotic tune anchored around swirling and painterly guitar textures, thunderous drumming that serve as a stormy bed for Holliday’s ethereal and yearning delivery singing “true blue” lyrics like an echoing promise. The result is to leave the listener swooning and desperately yearning — seemingly forever.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Hope Sandoval!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Hope Sandoval’s 59th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 96th Birthday, June Carter Cash!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 96th anniversary of June Carter Cash’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Cyndi Lauper!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Cyndi Lauper’s 72nd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Detroit Punks The Lowcocks Share a Cheeky Cover of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”

Founded back in 2017, the Detroit-based punk outfit The Lowcocks have established their own sound while sharing stages with several national touring acts, including The Casualties, Total Chaos, Nekromantix, The Koffin Kats, Menstrual Tramps, GBH, The Suicide Machines and The Exploited.

The Detroit-based punks latest single is a deliriously fun and cheeky, straightforward bruising cover of Dolly Parton‘s beloved 1980 smash-hit “9 to 5.” If you somehow didn’t know, “9 to 5” is a defiant feminist anthem, capturing the ambition, chutzpah and the bitter frustrations of its narrator/songwriter. But what makes it truly great is that what the song expresses and evokes is something that generations of working women know exactly what Dolly is talking about in the song. And in some small way, The Lowcocks cover feels like a passing of the torch for a younger generation, who will have to maneuver and fight an altogether different yet similar fight.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares Restless “Is It Now?”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — formed nine years ago. And in that time, they’ve released two albums:

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture.

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued there own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classiest; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses.

With two albums under their collective belts, the Los Angeles-based trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a fall release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”

Is It Now?‘s first single, album title track “Is It Now?” is a continuation of the sound that they established on their first two albums while simultaneously being a subtle yet noticeable refinement. “Is It Now?” features what may arguably be the tightest groove they’ve written to date paired with icy synths and a call-and-response chorus while showcasing their unerring knack for catchy hooks. But at its core is a modern sense of restlessness and unease that just feels — well, familiar.

The new single celebrates being authentically yourself. The call-and-response chorus vies between two points f view — a rebellious perspective and the manufactured, mass culture one. Automatica’s Izzy Glaudini explains that, increasingly, “the thing I think about the most on a day-to-day basis is: how do you have a sense of joy while the world seems to be collapsing, and you feel so powerless?” 

She adds, “I feel like, as American citizens, we have a responsibility to pull the levers to stop the machine. ‘Is It Now?’ is about trying to not feel like a victim in this environment. It’s important to still feel a sense of joy, even amongst all the horrible shit going on in the world.” 

Directed by Nicola and Juliana Giraffe, the accompanying video for “Is It Now” features the trio in an I Love Lucy-like scenario at a factory while they pack boxes and load them onto a truck while evoking the restlessness at the core of the song.