Tag: women who kick ass

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: sundayclub Shares Shimmering and Broodingly Conflicted “Corydon Ave (To Meet You)”

Winnipeg-based indie duo sundayclub — Courtney and Nikki — have quickly cemented a sound and approach that blends hazy indie pop and dreamy textures with unfiltered storytelling. The result is material that’s much like blurry photograph, grainy yet glowing, fleeting yet full of feeling and life. 

The duo’s nine-song, self-titled, full-length debut saw its official release today through Paper Bag Records. Their debut is deeply informed by the stillness of rural Manitoba, where the duo started the band as a way of processing the very strange limbo of early adulthood — that feeling of being caught between who you once were and who you’re slowly becoming. Fittingly, the album is rooted in place: in a romanticized, re-examined Winnipeg with its hard edges softened in the way that memory often soften things. Thematically, the album touches upon growing up, growing apart and growing into your own skin. 

The album includes the previously released “Camera Shy,” “Blue Wave,” and the album’s latest single “Corydon Ave (To Meet You).” “Corydon Ave (To Meet You)” is a shimmering tune that’s simultaneously brooding, tense, full of barely contained longing, and rousingly anthemic while capturing a narrator, who’s conflicted, guilt-ridden and obsessed with someone — and the narrator just can’t quite figure out what to do or if what they want from this person is even possible. You can sense the desire to tell the

“Corydon Ave (To Meet You)” can trace its origins to the neighborhood where the band’s Nikki grew up — Winnipeg’s Corydon, a culturally rich pocket of the city that Courtney came to know through him. Spending time there, she found herself unexpectedly and intensely struck by a new acquaintance, who happened to be from the same neighborhood.

“Along with being struck with the beauty of it, I became impossibly and unexpectedly struck by a new acquaintance who also happened to be from the area,” Courtney explains. “Realizing the intense feelings and infatuation that quickly developed, the song took a deeply personal turn. It became an opportunity to create this world in which the two of us could be together, despite it being so fragile in reality.”

At the time, Courtney was navigating her sexuality, and what followed was complicated, consuming guilt-ridden and heady. The song became a way to hold all of it. “I was starting to explore my sexuality around this time and so there were also a lot of confusing, guilt-ridden feelings that came with it as well,” Courtney adds. “The relationship felt almost hedonistic at times because it felt so forbidden and self-indulgent and yet felt like something I wasn’t supposed to want or enjoy. It was a constant gauging of mine and her physical and emotional boundaries and I found myself wrestling between wanting to preserve and yet cross them at the same time.”

The gorgeously shot visual captures the narrator’s feverish, barely contained desire for her love interest in the subtle and often confusing “did that mean what I desperately hope it means?” moments of our lives, when we love someone and aren’t sure if it’s reciprocated and are afraid to take a bold chance. And if you’re queer or exploring what your sexuality is, that moment can invite a crushing fear — of being outed against your will or worse.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 87th Birthday, Mavis Staples!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Mavis Staples’ 87th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Eleanor Moss Shares Gorgeous and Intimate “The Way It Feels”

London-based singer/songwriter Eleanor Moss will be releasing her full-length debut, The Knife, The Needle on August 21, 2026 through Merge Records. The nine-song album concerns itself with the way relationships between people are transformed, complicated and troubled by love. It’s a devastating work and a feat of tight lyrical construction that is simultaneously patient and vulnerable, opulently rendered and keenly felt. But interestingly, The Knife, The Needle emerged from a place of restraint with Moss — staying in a cabin near her parents’ house in the Scottish Highlands after initially recording an entirely different version of the album in New York (“a bit rollicking,” she notes) — feeling the pangs of the album she hadn’t recorded — “quieter, weirder, more English.”

Recording an album with a new ensemble and producer/engineer Pete Miles was a risk, but for Moss, setting aside an already completed effort was worth it. With the quieter, weirder, more English sound, Moss attempts to capture something fleeting, ephemeral and honest about the moments in which love, for better or worse, irrevocably changes someone.

The album will feature the previously released “Sarah Waiting in the Car,” and its latests single, the breathtakingly gorgeous and timeless “The Way It Feels.” Moss’ achingly yearning and expressive vocal is accompanied by birdsong and her strummed acoustic, classical guitar — and the result is an intimate, timeless picture of a universe created in the bond between two people with the unvarnished humility and honesty of a narrator, who says “the more I learn, the less I understand.”

“This was the last song written for the album, and feels to me like it sums up the spirit of the record. The more I learn about love the less I know, the more I know about someone, the more I know I don’t know them,” Moss explains. “It feels like an appropriate last song for an album about paradoxes; love asks us to hold contradiction without giving in to its discomfort. A song about not turning away, but turning towards.” 

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Matthew Thorne, the accompanying video for “The Way It Feels” was shot in the Greek Peloponnese on 16mm film with Director of Photography Tasos Chatzis — and fittingly is as gorgeous and mediative as the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BelaBela’s Posthumously Released “Virgin Mary” Marks Launch of Bella Angel Fund

Bella Isabella Catherine Jhun was a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, dancer, visual artist and aspiring producer, best known as the creative mastermind behind the shoegaze project BelaBela. Jhun’s work explored themes of vulnerability, spirituality, heartbreak and […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophia Bel Shares Atmospheric and World -Weary “Rat Race”

Montréal-based artist Sophia Bel exploded into the local and national scenes with her angsty full-length debut, 2022’s Anxious Avoidant, an effort released to praise from Le Devoir, Le Canal Auditif and EUPHORIA, and landed on the year-end lists of several media outlets, including RANGE Magazine, Exclaim! and CJLO.

Bel stepped away from the rat race to recuperate from tech fatigue and the relentless pressures of social media. After a few years away from the spotlight, the acclaimed Canadian artist will be releasing her highly-anticipated sophomore album, When The Cows Come Home on May 7, 2027 through Bonsound.

Drawn to the spaces between chaos and stillness, the Montréal-based singer/songwriter explores what it means to be human in an increasingly distracted, modern world. Pairing intimate songwriting with dreamy, organic soundscapes, Bel transforms seemingly mundane, everyday moments into quiet reflections on identity, connection and meaning. In a world driven by instant gratification, constant stimulation and productivity, her work is a gentle reminder that stillness, vulnerability and reflection are not indulgences — but are necessary to our humanity.

When The Cows Comes Home‘s first single “Rat Race” is a slow-burning tune that features an atmospheric arrangement of twinkling keys, gently padded drums and a supple bass line beneath Bel’s ethereal and world-weary delivery. And while subtly channeling A Storm in Heaven and No Come Down-era The Verve, “Rat Race” is anchored in an unvarnished honest, vulnerability, expressing a deep-seated exhaustion and a desperate desire to finally slow down.

Directed by Bel, the accompanying video for “Rat Race” follows the Montréal-based artist on top of what appears to be one of those double-decker tourist buses in a shirt, tie and trench coat through the city’s Central Business District –to my eyes, it looks like Boulevard Rene Levesque — with a briefcase and old-fashioned cell phone. But we see her get fed up with it all, throw the cell phone down, take the trench coat off and loosen her tie. Maybe some of us should do the same.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Debbie Harry!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the iconic Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry’s 81st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Evelyn “Champagne” King!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Evelyn “Champagne” King’s 66th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, Missy Elliott!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrations Missy Elliott’s 55th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lisa LeBlanc Shares Rollicking “Whole Lotta Talkin'”

Lisa LeBlanc is an acclaimed Rosaireville, NB-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (banjo and guitar) and established Acadian icon, thanks to her sound, a unique blend of roots, rock, disco, funk and country. After achieving commercial success with 2012’s self-titled full-length debut, she switched from French to English for 2012’s Highways Heartaches and Time Well Wasted and 2017’s Why You Wanna Leave Runaway Queen, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist that year.

The Rosaireville-born, Montréal-based artist and her backing band toured relentlessly over a handful of years. But by 2019, she took a break from touring to write and travel, and also began to explore studio work, which led her to produce Édith Butler‘s 25th album, 2021’s Le tour du Grand Bois. This new creative path enabled LeBlanc to broaden her musical horizons while using her talents, creativity and passion in the service of others.

The new production skills she learned led to 2022’s Chiac Disco, a critically applauded effort that simultaneously drew from and paid tribute to Lee Hazlewood, disco and funk — simultaneously. LeBlanc supported the album with over 140 shows across North America, Europe and Japan. The album landed on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist — her second time earning the honor. And the album led to a Juno Award nomination. Since then her catalogue has amassed over 35 million streams across all DSPs.

2024’s Live avec l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec saw LeBlanc collaborating with 63 classical musicians to perform her material.

“Whole Lotta Talkin'” is the acclaimed Canadian artist’s first bit of new material since Chiac Disco — and it marks a return to English lyrics. Sonically, “Whole Lotta Talkin'” is a rollickingly fun, hooky tune featuring a classic, surf rock riff and shimmering 60s-styled organ that sounds a bit like a seamless blend of Dick Dale, Link Wray, The Castaways‘ “Liar Liar” and The B-52‘s while showcasing LeBlanc’s mischievous wit and humor. The song recalls a situation all of us have been in at some point: being cornered by someone who just won’t shut up, and doesn’t get the hint that you’re desperately trying to get away from them.

Directed by Alexandre Pelletier, the accompanying video follows the touring adventures of a dysfunctional rock band featuring LeBlanc and her puppet bandmates — two of which are irremediably thoughtless, lazy, womanizing partiers, who besides playing music aren’t holding their weight on anything else. “I wanted to tell this funny, absurd story with the utmost seriousness, as if we were watching an ultra-dramatic musical biopic,” Pelletier explains. But what starts off on a playful note ends with a double puppet murder and a shared bloody secret.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: M. Woodroe Shares Tense, Bruising “Sweetness, Sweetness”

Brighton-based outfit M. Woodroe — Marcie Garwell (vocals, guitar), Ben Elwin (guitar), Jeorgie Pinder-Whiley (bass), Sam Sezarin (drums) — exploded out of their local DIY scene, quickly establishing themselves as one of the city’s most exciting, emerging acts. Their work pairs intricate, provocative and politically-charged lyrics that touch upon boundary-pushing explorations gender, sexuality and desire with angular, fuzzy and noisy post punk-inspired guitar work.

The emerging and rising Brighton-based have played shows alongside Mcluksy, Prostitute, and others, developing a reputation for an intense live show, while receiving airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and BBC Introducing. And building upon a growing profile, the post-punk quartet recently signed to Venn Records, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated debut EP, The Treatment of Fractures on September 18, 2026.

The EP’s first single “Sweetness, Sweetness” is a bruising tune that captures an indecisive, neurotic narrator, who’s on the verge of exploding in a seething fury in every direction, fueled by self-flagellation and confusion. While sonically channeling the likes of JOVM mainstays Whispering Sons, the song as the band’s Marcie Garwell explains is “about many things — weakness, identity, acquiescence, confusion . . . the position you drink not to make a fuss. It’s a pipe bomb sent to order, hate mail addressed to compromise, yet it’s indecisive in all its threats and feelings – never sure of where it lies.

Directed by J. Taylor-Jones, the accompanying video for “Sweetness, Sweetness” is a feverish portrayal of discomfit, self-flagellation, dread and despair that feels particularly modern.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Indy Fontaine Returns with Flirty “Como Pa’ Mi”

Indy Fontaine is a Cuban-born, Miami-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who can trace the origins of her career to her early childhood: Singing alongside her uncle and his old guitar, she fell in love with music when she was three. By the time she turned six, she was enrolled full-time at a music school in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, where she trained to be professional vocalist and musician. 

Fontaine went on to graduate at the top of her class from Havana‘s prestigious National School of Art. When she graduated, she already had over a decade of experience playing gigs all across her native Cuba, including music festivals, live radio and TV sessions, and more. 

Fontaine then joined Sol y Sun, an act that has made runs of the international festival circuit between the States and Cuba, as well as some of the most popular venues in Havana. The band also frequently performed on national TV and radio shows.

She then relocated to Miami, where she stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist, Her solo debut, 2024’s Moments of My Life ranged across a number of genres and styles, including Adult Contemporary, Easy Listening, Soft Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock and R&B — with songs written and sung in both English and Spanish. 

The album featured “El Amor No Alcanza,” Fontaine’s subtly modern take on bolero, a Cuban genre that frequently focuses on affairs of the heart. Since then, Fontaine spent the past year releasing a collection of successful singles, “Esta Navidad,” “Vacaciones,” “Mariposas En La Lluvia,” “Mejor Sin Ti,” “Que Te Vaya Bien,” “Después De La Caída”  and the Andrés Castro and Guianko Gómez co-written and co-produced “Tú Tienes Algo,” feat. Charlie Cruz.

Fontaine’s latest single, the Fontaine and Guianko Gómez cowritten and Gómez-produced “Como Pa’ Mi” is a thumping, club friendly and flirty bachata tune that captures the feverish desperation of obsessive infatuation, when that person takes absolute hold of every thought and feeling. The song radiates joy –the sort of joy and hope from newfound love. And that joy was the feeling that Fontaine brought into the studio. “I walked into the studio with a happy vibe, a special feeling, and I wanted to share that with everyone — that beautiful emotion that comes up when two people genuinely connect,” Fontaine says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Uh Huh Her Shares Sultry “Shook”

Acclaimed and influential duo Uh Huh Her — Camilla Grey and Leisha Hailey — were once brought together by a sense of divine providence. Now, more than two decades later, the duo that would help define the indie sleaze era and inspire the likes of Metric, Dum Dum Girls and Magic Wands have returned to beckon a brand new generation of folks to the dance floor with the re-release of their beloved 2011 effort, Nocturnes.

The reissue, Nocturnes:Redux is slated for an August 7, 2026 release through Kill Rock Stars across DSPs and as a limited edition goth confetti vinyl. The reissue features never-before-heard original mixes by acclaimed super producer Tchad Blake, along with two previously unreleased songs — a cover of Sonic Youth‘s classic song “Kool Thing” and a new track “Shook.”

Just like how they came together back in the summer of 2006 through common friends and interests, the duo’s reconnection blossomed serendipitously and quickly. “It feels like it did when we first got together,” says Uh Huh Her’s Leisha Haliey, a songwriter, actor and author, who may now be best known for her starting role on Showtime’s The L Word and its follow-up Generation Q and her 2025 New York Times bestselling memoir, So Gay For You: Friendship, Found Family and the Show That Started It All. “We’re just creative again together, and it’s an interesting place to come back to. And it’s almost like no time has passed, and all of the pressure’s off.”

The original release of Nocturnes was the band’s first independent release. “It meant the world that our fans directly supported the mixing of the album through online eBay auctions of memorabilia, vinyl, art, and even a couple private dinners, because that enabled us to enlist the powers of the incredible Tchad Blake,” Uh Huh Her’s Camilla Grey says. As they contemplated rereleasing Nocturnes with Kill Rock Stars, Grey started digging around to find the album’s original mixes. “I chose Tchad’s first and second mix attempts because I wanted to preserve his first instincts before we gave him a million notes,” she says. This is truly how he heard it on one or two tries. The songs are longer, they’re more rocked out, they’re a little more raucous.” The entirety of those original mixes have never seen the light of day until now.

“Shook,” Nocturnes: Redux‘s first single, and the re-issues only new, original single is a sultry tune that feels and sounds effortlessly crafted yet earnest, deeply universal yet intimate and personal with the song subtly capturing the slow-burn dread and unease of our weird moment. Camila Grey explains that the song is “particularly relevant in a time where everything and everyone feels so unstable. We are living through a profound assault on our central nervous systems by the barrage of media we ingest on a daily basis. While ‘Shook’ is more about a personal situation, the title speaks volumes about what we feel as humans on a daily basis.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Abbie Ozard Shares Soaring and Cathartic “Baby I’m Your Star”

Released to critical applause from the likes of The Times, The Independent, Dork, The Line of Best Fit, Clash Magazine, The Fader, Notion, Hunger and more, 2024’s full-length debut, everything still worries me saw British artist Abbie Ozard explode into the national scene.

Ozard built upon a growing profile with a number of headlining UK shows, a European Union tour opening slot for Briston Maroey and a run of the regional festival circuit that included her debut at Glastonbury.

everything still worries me‘s highly-anticipated follow-up, Baby I’m Your Star EP is slated for an August 21. 2026 release. The EP will include the perviously released “Backbone,” which continues a run of material that has received airplay on Jack Saunders‘ and Huw Stephens’ BBC 1 Radio shows, as well as BBC Introducing Track of the Week, and Abbie McCarthy‘s and Chris Hawkins’ BBC Radio 6 shows.

“Baby I’m Your Star,” the EP’s title track and latest single is a rousingly anthemic tune that sees Ozard pairing open-armed, earnest lyricism and her soaring vocal with swirling and chiming guitar textures and her unerring knack for bombastic, festival friendly hooks and choruses. But underneath the rousingly bombastic catharsis is song that touches upon the sensation of faking-it-’til-you-make-it and wanting to be heard and understood. I guarantee most of us have been there at some point or another — including right now.

“‘Baby I’m Your Star’ is about trying to convince yourself you’re as confident as you want everyone else to think you are,” Ozard explains. “On the surface it’s cocky and playful, but underneath it comes from wanting to be heard and believed in. The song plays with the tension between ego and self-doubt, and the idea that sometimes confidence is something you have to perform before you fully believe it. It feels like a defiant moment for me, but there’s still plenty of vulnerability hiding underneath.”

Directed by Jack Hartley, the accompanying, mischievous video for “Baby I’m Your Star” features an aging guy out in the countryside, trying to stargaze — during the day, eventually coming upon Ozard, strolling through the countryside.