JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Jody Watley’s 67th birthday.
Tag: women who kick ass
New Video: Haylie Davis Shares Shimmering and Introspective “Country Boy”
Raised in Northern California and currently based in Los Angeles, Haylie Davis is a rising artist, who has received attention global attention for her passionate reimagining of classic Laurel Canyon folk pop, anchored by her gorgeous, remarkable vocal range and her knack for intricate storytelling.
After collaborating with a series of like-minded artists including Drugdealer, Sylvie, Alex Amen and Sam Burton, Davis steps out into her own path, meshing gorgeous melodies and strikingly original songcraft its a new band of cosmic Americana.
“Young Man” is latest single off the Los Angeles-based artist’s highly-anticipated debut album, which will feature the previously released “Country Boy” and “Golden Age,” and is slated for release later this year through Fire Records. “Young Man” is an introspective lived-in lament on the breakup of a misplaced, perhaps even unearned affection and its aftermath. And as a result, the song’s narrator expresses a mix of relief, exhaustion, despair and bit of “wait, what the fuck was that?” while nursing a bruised heart.
Fittingly, the song features some heartbreakingly gorgeous steel guitar paired with Davis’ timeless, world-weary delivery. It sounds a bit like a 70s country ballad, much like Johnny Cash‘s take on the Kris Kristofferson-penned “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” — with a subtly modern vibe.
“‘Young Man’ was born a few years back in a Texas green room while I was out on tour with Sam Burton,” Davis explains. ““I was fresh off a breakup, emotionally raw, and the song arrived naturally in that in-between space – part exhaustion, part reflection, part release. Later, I brought it to life with Michael Harris at Valentine Recording Studio. Working with Michael was a joy; he creates an atmosphere that’s both encouraging and effortless, making the recording process feel less like work and more like discovery.”
Directed by Magnolia Ellenburg, the accompanying video for “Young Man” is a gorgeously shot fever dream of heartache, despair and pride that should feel familiar to anyone who has had to nurse their bruised heart and investigate themselves in the aftermath of a breakup. Those answers aren’t easy to come by, but you figure out a way to move on and learn from it as best as you can.
New Video: ADULT. Shares Urgent, Anthemic “No One is Coming”
Throughout the course of their 25-year history, Detroit-based industrial, synth punks ADULT. — Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller — have embodied steadfast frustration, distrust and apprehension. Typically for acts that have been together that long, the edges began to soften with time, but the duo isn’t interested or even remotely concerned about the comfort of legacy.
Kissing Luck Goodbye, the duo’s 10th album is slated for a March 27, 2026 release through Dais Records. Reportedly, the album features music that may arguably be the most visceral, urgent, angry and uncompromising effort of their career to date. Built with upgraded gear and a whole new library of sounds, Kissing Luck Goodbye‘s material is crushingly dynamic, louder and much clearer with Kuperus’ commanding delivery being given much greater delivery in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants and music. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif through the material that speaks to the menacing absurdity of our moment.
The album’s lead single “No One is Coming” is a rousingly anthemic and urgent industrial scorcher anchored around a forceful baseline and noisy feedback that’s one-part dire warning, one-part call to arms that directly attacks inaction in the face of fascism. And at its core, it reminds the listener that there will be no calvary, no saviors, no deus ex machina to save us. We’re all we got. We’re going to have to save ourselves — or perish.
“‘No one is coming to your rescue . . . ‘ A lyric that was written in early 2025 and is even more relevant on its release date a year later. A song speaking to moral collapse and political corruption ‘to a T.'” ADULT.’s Nicola Kuperus says. “These subhumans attempting to run the show are more concerned with cashing in and political cosplay than the well being of mankind. While working on this album, I read an article from an esteemed environmental scientist about “what’s coming in the future”. What stuck with me was their point that we are entering a new phase in existence where the most important thing we can do is know our neighbors and know the strengths of each other and what resources everyone has. Who needs extra care? Who is on their own? This song was written as a call to arms. Be alert. Be aware. Be prepared. Stand up for yourself and look out for your community. We are better when we are united. Social media is wearing us down. Deluding us. The political landscape is horrifying, distracting, deranged and unhinged. We are seeing this go down in real time right now in Minneapolis… NO ONE IS COMING TO YOUR RESCUE… except ALL OF US! Keep speaking up! Keep using your right to protest and most importantly keep showing kindness to one another.”
The accompanying video features the duo playing in front of a backdrop of edited stock footage of crowds clapping, dancing and consuming mindlessly as the surrounding world burns down.
Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, Anita Baker!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Anita Baker’s 68th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 88th Birthday, Etta James!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 88th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Etta James.
New Video: Tinlicker Shares Euphoric “Release”
Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero.
Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online.
2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland.
The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival.
Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Last year, also saw Heyboer and Achthoven inviting Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”
The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl.
Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — Dreams of the Machine is slated for a February 27, 2026 release through [PIAS] Électronique. Dreams of the Machine will feature the previously released singles “I Want My Freedom,” and “Reborn.”
The newly-constituted trio’s third single “Release,” is a lush, euphoria-inducing track anchored around melodic, rippling synth arpeggios, skittering, industrial-inspired breakbeats and reverb-soaked bass paired with Hero Baldwin’s sultry, commanding delivery and the trio’s unerring knack for crafting expansive, club and festival friendly tracks underpinned by a deep soulfulness.
Lyrically, the addresses the modern obsession with our cell phones — to the point that we’re not fully present with ourselves, with others or within the moments we should be enjoying and cherishing. How many times have you attended some event and 98% of the people around you are fixating on their phone — whether to text, instagram or to record every single moment? But the song also focuses on the potential conflict between human and the influence of AI-led algorithms.
“At its heart, ‘Release’ is about how easily we slip out of the moment without noticing. The habit of checking, fixing and responding instantly on our phones and how that slowly takes over our attention to each other,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “We’re not anti-technology, perhaps just quietly aware of what disappears when distraction becomes automatic. ‘Release’ is about pausing and staying in the moment with the people around you.”
The accompanying video by Carl Frazer-Lunn begins in a bustling London with businesspeople, commuters, students and others busily fixating on their phones, completely unaware of their surroundings. The video then quickly turns to live footage of the trio performing at Crystal Palace in front of an enraptured crowd. It’s proof that there are only a few truly transcendent moments in our morally bankrupt world: that moment when our favorite act plays our favorite song live — or that moment when that act gets into an irresistible groove. Put that phone down and dance already.
New Audio: Club 8 Shares Lush and Dreamy “Echoes Of Our Time”
Since the release of 2024’s A Year With Club 8, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — the duo spent last year releasing a single a month over the course of last year, including tunes like “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” “Sneaky Feelings” and “Daydreams.”
The duo begin 2026 with “Echoes Of Our Time,” a nostalgia-inducing bop that channels classic New Order and shimmering, 80s pop while showcasing the duo’s unerring knack for catchy hooks and rousingly anthemic choruses. The song touches upon some familiar and deeply universal themes — the heartache, despair and longing for a loved one, who you’re no longer involved with, the dreaminess of northern hemisphere winter and the longing to spend a wintry day in bed not doing much.
Throwback: Happy 78th Birthday, Anita Pointer!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 78th anniversary of the birth of Anita Pointer.
New Video: Bibi Club Shares Dreamy “Washing Machine”
Deriving their name from their living room discotheque, where their “bibis” — or loved ones — come to dance, the Montréal-based duo Bibi Club — Adèle Trottier-Rivard (vocals, keys) and Nicolas Basque (guitar) — earned acclaim across both Québec and Europe with their debut album, 2022’s Le soleil et la mer, an album that won a Most Promising Award at that year’s GAMIQ Awards, a Discovery of the Year at that year’s ADISQ Awards and landed on the Polaris Music Prize long list.
Le soleil et la mer received praise by a number of French outfits including Les Inrocks, Magic Magazine, Libération and France Inter and landed on Le Devoir, Les Inrocks‘ and Tsugi’s Best Albums of 2022 lists. And adding to a rapidly growing international profile, the album received airplay from BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq.
Their sophomore album, 2024’s Feu de garde saw the band expanding upon their sound with darker textures and luminous synths. The album earned several nominations at that year’s ADISQ Awards and landed on the Polaris Music Prize short ling. The album was FNAC‘s album of the month for May and received praise from MOJO, Télérama, Record Collector, Uncut and many more.
Building upon a growing profile, the Montréal-based duo have begun making a run of the international festival circuit with sets at SXSW, The Great Escape, FOCUS Wales, MaMA Festival, Osheaga, The New Colossus Festival, as well as clubs in Brazil, Germany and Canada. They’ve also opened for Blonde Redhead, Circuit des Yuex and a list of others.
Bibi Club’s highly-anticipated third album Amaro is slated for a February 27, 2026 release through Secret City Records. The album sees the acclaimed French Canadian duo inviting the listener to brave the dark beasts that shadow us beneath the surface, and to devote ourselves to the healing power of a fierce will to live. It explores the liminal spectrum between the here and beyond, pointing to love, nature and community as the deeply unifying purpose. The album’s material reportedly draw a detailed map of a world completely of its own, following the trajectory traced by the pair in recent years.
Now, out of the living room, we dance in a mental space overloaded with grief and fear in their most rawest forms. Following the death of two dear, loved ones in the last year, the mantra “I want to love, I want to live,” resonates intensely in each song’s melody, underlined by the belief that if the heart is a place that never dies, we must reach it as quickly as possible.
Inspired by their tours with Blonde Redhead and Circuit des Yeux and a collaboration with Calvin Johnson, the duo’s sound now incorporates elements of avant pop, electronic body music, dark wave and neo-folk while simultaneously borrowing from baroque sounds with harpsichord, trumpet and ritual chants. The album also features contributions from saxophonist Dimitri Milbrun and singer/songwriter Helena Deland, who help contribute to its overall sound.
“Washing Machine,” Amaro‘s second and latest single, as well as the album’s first English language single is a breakneck churn of a song that’s one-part shoegaze, one-part dream pop, one-part post punk that evokes a complicated yet lived-in mix of joy and sorrow that often coexists throughout our lives — if we pay attention.
The duo say of the album’s new single: “The anomaly. This song is a homage to Tobie, who loved washing machines, the way they rush in and spin in every direction. It’s also a reflection on our experience as parents and the visceral bonds that connect us to our children. The song is full of light and life despite its underlying grief, the guitars dance together, the keyboard pulses with life, it’s energetic, even danceable. It evokes the short passage on Earth of a child who left a vivid, powerful mark on everyone who loved him.”
Directed by Anna Arrobas and featuring sculptures by Anna Arrobas and Marin McMillan, the accompanying video for “Washing Machine” features various sculpted pieces meant to look like ancient symbols. “For ‘Washing Machine,’ I wanted to explore symbols of life, death and reincarnation,” Arrobas explains. “Marin and I sculpted them to look like ancient relics and I filmed them in flickering light in front of a black backdrop to make them look suspended and floating.”
New Audio: Silverdeer Shares Lush and Yearning “Open Mouth”
Los Angeles-based duo Silverdeer — longtime friends Halsey Bousquet (vocals) and Nika Fazeli — have been centered by a long-held warm, flirty and playful kinetic energy that they first established with their first project saturn 17.
Formed back in 2019, saturn 17 quickly gained attention with their breakout single “could this be love,” which amassed over 10 million streams. But by 2024, the duo found themselves facing unexacting challenges. Bouts of writer’s block and an overwhelming urge to explore new sounds and genres led to a creative hiatus.
Both Fazeli and Bosquet recognized that they were undergoing a personal and artistic metamorphosis that ultimately required a new name for their project that matched it. Over the past couple of years as Silverdeer, the duo have established a sound that melds the spirit of 90s alternative rock with lush, dream pop textures.
The duo’s latest effort, the Casey Lagos-produced House of Devotion is slated for a March 20, 2026 release. The forthcoming EP will feature the previously released “Montauk” and “Drift.”
“Meeting Casey was like finding the missing puzzle piece,” the Los Angeles duo say. “We had been trying for so long to explain our vision to people, and it was so refreshing to find someone who immediately understood it and had the tools and the creativity to push us where we wanted to go. He is such a supportive and sweet person too, we feel so safe being vulnerable and creative with him.”
“House of Devotion is inspired by the beach house in Eternal Sunshine — a place meant to feel safe and intimate, but one that starts collapsing the moment you step inside,” the duo explain. “It’s built from memories, desire, and the fragile structures two people create together, and it begins to fall apart under the emotional weight of devotion.” And fittingly, the EP’s material explores themes of love, connection, nostalgia and longing. “House of Devotion invites you to reflect on connection — how we relate to people who have entered and exited our lives.”
The EP’s third and latest single, “Open Mouth” is a dreamy mix of dream pop, shoegaze and trip hop, anchored around the duo’s penchant for remarkably catchy, razor sharp hooks — and a palpable sense of yearning and barely controlled desire that feels youthful and explosive.
“‘Open Mouth’ is our most addicting song on the EP,” the duo shares. “It exists as a celebration of sexuality, a snapshot of desire and almost-caught moments.”
Live Footage: DVTR “Live on the Big Rusty Ferry”
Montréal-based JOVM mainstays DVTR — Le Couleur‘s Laurence G-Do a.k.a. Demi Lune and Gazoline‘s, Kandle‘s Xavier Caféine‘s and Gab Bouchard‘s JC Tellier, a.k.a. Jean Divorce — have exploded into the Canadian indie scene with the release of their debut EP, 2023’s BONJOUR. The EP earned a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 lists and earned the duo the first batch of a growing number of Québec-based music industry awards.
Building upon 2023’s momentum, the duo released an expanded edition of their debut EP, 2024’s BONJOUR (BIS), which featured a couple of bonus tracks.
The Montrealers supported the original and expanded editions of BONJOUR EP with a frenetic and whirlwind world tour that saw the band playing sets across the international club and festival circuit in Asia, Mexico, Germany, Québec and France. During this remarkably busy period,. the duo released a live album on VHS — yes, VHS! — and added a few more awards to their already crowded mantle, including the 2025 Breakout Artist of the Year at the GAMIQ Gala early last year. And they also managed to release new material, including “Né pour flâner (Born to loiter),” and “Couleur peau (Your Next Token Asian Friend).”
The duo along with their live backing band of masked minions/henchmen filmed a blistering and unhinged 17-minute live session on a big rusting ferry on the St. Lawrence River. Live on the Big Rusty Ferry features live version of BONJOUR tracks “Anu Cuni,” “Les flics,” “Vasectomia,” “Rhum cokeMD” and “Sound $ex Change,” and “DVTR,” as well as last year’s standalone “Né pour flâner,” and accurately captures the wild and frenetic energy that has helped the act win fans at clubs and festivals across the globe.
Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, Dolly Parton!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday.