Week in Pop
Featured off their recent album GT Ultra available now via DFA Records; feast your consciousness on the Trllm video for Guerilla Toss’s “Betty Dreams of Green Men”. Filmed out in Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, California—the Boston noise disturbers take their sonic visions that shatter the static for rural pastures for UFO sitings awaiting the emergence of an alien entourage to descend from the celestial/cosmic void. With foil caps affixed in anticipation for the grand arrival of extra-terrestrial beings; Guerilla Toss take their spaced-out aesthetics into the potent fields of impossible possibilities.
Bumping Mozzy in the Maserati, Apollo Brown & Planet Asia shared a view of the Diego Cruz video for “Deep In The Casket” featured off the Mello Music album Anchovies as Planet preaches life & death sermons over Apollo’s own organic production. Illustrating the doctrine of the game from the graveyard to the home yards; the duo illustrate the gravity of grinding with a message of truth where deep pockets run parallel to the finite frame of the temporal where even those with all the fortunes do not escape the entropy of the cemetery scene.
Mister Lies’ Nick Zanca with Steven Rogers & producer Alex Thompson are Quiet Friend, readying their debut self-titled album for release in March with a listen to the single “Safe”. From the twinkling & shimmering arrangement & emotive harmonics of the delivery; Quiet Friend provides an ethereal outlet to shatter the deafening silences with a host of feelings & newly discovered fascinations.
Overcoats’ deluxe version of the album YOUNG is available today & they presented us with a listen to the single “Kai’s Song” that provides acoustic energy of introspection that ruminates about what happens after the party is over. The piano drawn sound of life at the crossroads is heard in harmonies & melodies that discover a new lease on life when it feels as if everything is on the brink of falling apart or on the verge of becoming better than ever before. An anthem of our own uncertain times, for sure.
On the heels of WAVVES’ recent album You’re Welcome from Ghost Ramp, we bring you a listen to their collaboration with Culture Abuse on “Up and Down” featuring the following lyrical video to celebrate the occasion. With the 7″ available soon, the Southern California set meets the Bay’s best & baddest where the Ghost Ramp ragers meet Epitaph’s own icons of awesome in jam made for dives, festival stages & amphitheaters everywhere.
Featured off the upcoming November 17 slated EP Draw, NYC’s The Liza Colby Sound present the video for “Cryin” from David J Barron that works in a wild array of inspired dance moves & rocking rhythms. Emotions & moods spring forth in both song & motion as the minimalist shot video focuses on Liza taking on the world as a series of stages & bandstands to conquer & command with blistering & brash blues.
Brooklyn’s Darryl Rahn delivered the intricate aspects of amour via the expressive pop single “Still in Luv” from the upcoming Newlywed Records EP. From the complications that arrive from love triangles and other such odd shapes, Rahn rocks with a modernist sense of cool confidence amid a host of various poly-amorous attachments.
Kramies provided a look at the Cam Merton video for “I Wish I Missed You” where the audience is taken to the majesty of Shankill Castle, Ireland where sentiments of longing & earnest expression are coupled like clasped hands held in an ineffable bond of congress.
Playing tongiht in LA at the Echo, Bruno Major offered a look at the forensics aspects that deconstruct the anatomy of relationship discontinuity in “Just The Same” directed by Louise Bhose. As every item is taken apart & separated from the sum of all the complicated parts as the ripping apart of a formerly shared life feels even heavier with Major’s own chorus reiterations of and I still love you just the same.
Toronto’s Born Ruffians present the Leah Fay Goldstein & Peter Dreimanis from July Talk video for “Love Too Soon” that takes the audience through the hallways of life where the gravity of too much too soon becomes a fun house of introspection. Feelings of things maturing before their time are taken through the isolating corridors where passages of thoughts lead to the nowheres & mind trails of what could have been otherwise.
LA’s La Louma (a collaborator of St. Vincent) just released the album debut Let The World Be Flooded Out available now via Bitchwave Record & delivered the expressive & emotive inflected single “Just Wanna Love You”. Moving the conversation past the binary constrictive constraints, La Louma illustrates a plethora of passions & sentiments that send forth an array of feelings that stir heart strung styles where DIY approaches push toward maximalist presentations.
Montreal’s own Catherine McCandless & Stephen Ramsay of Young Galaxy gifted us “Elusive Dream”, that offers an out of body feeling & perspective that spells out the perseverance of the human spirit amid the instability of our current socio-political era. Through an economic approach of pointed keys & Catherine’s sharp crafted expressive execution; the ripples in the fabric of our worlds are examined in their entirety with a maudlin arrangement that offers reflective pause for the audience. Young Galaxy shared the following thoughts on the inspirations behind the new single:
“Elusive Dream” was written this summer during this ongoing period of social and political tension in the world. The song addresses the fact that we feel human existence is the craziest, most psychedelic thing there is, and yet it feels like we’re prone to squandering it all. We are hopeful, ready to fight for our beliefs and on behalf of those who have trouble fighting for themselves. Sometimes however, we just want to take a moment to reflect, to feel the wonder and the sadness of it all at the same time. This song is about those feelings.
For those of us late to the Field Medic party, we present the VHS captured video for “Flash Tattoos” that basks in a DIY sort of beauty. The independent SF phenomenon brings some warm jangling slices of love from the expanses of the great Pacific where it feels like everyone’s dream can bloom for an eternity.
Alana Henderson, known for providing for cello & vocals for Hozier, delivered the single “Let This Remain” full of evocative resonances, strings & chamber choral essences. A blend of the acoustic & subtle applications of electronics meets together in a congress of ethereal vocal winds & the sway of life’s changes & the remnants of what is left with the tide’s ebb from the stretches of the shore.
Singaporean pop star Vandetta dropped the lively & upfull Amanda Tan & Lim Teck Siang video for “ONZ” featuring Kimberly Olsen with production from Perk Pietrek that is bound to put some extra pep in your step. Featured off the Mindkiller EP available via Ownself Records, Vandetta breaks the URL hindrances for some IRL indulgences of reality & truths that are guaranteed to leave you feeling hopeful for our shared world.
Year of October offered up the Halloween appropriate album Trouble Comes to keep those freaky & frightened feelings rolling well into November. From “Watch it Burn” to “Broken”, discontinuities & new beginnings are celebrated in a series of senses that ride & riff from the dissonant & distorted guitars to minimalist acoustic folk vignettes that strum with earthbound sentiments.
Courtesy of Future Gods, Cape Weather reaches out & dials someone with the single “Telephone” that sends out long distance signals to close the gap of loneliness. The states of solace make for inspirations to make a connection with kindred hearts no matter what dimensions of lengths that might stand between the two respective parties involved.
Langhorne Slim delivered the Joshua Shoemaker, Tim Duggan & Anthony Simpkins midnight fright fest video for “Zombie” featured off the forthcoming album Lost At Last, Vol. 1 available November 10 from Dualtone. The ins & outs of dating one of the living dead is illustrated in campy & comedic manners where your favorite thriller flicks accompany Slim’s own timeless musical styles.
Mo Troper delivered the branding ballad titled “Your Brand” featured off the upcoming album Exposure & Response available November 17 through Good Cheer Records. Big production pomp with concerns over marketing & product ownership are swept up together in a big anthem to bring the house down with pumping fists & a boisterous arrangement.
NSTASIA delivered the single of good times & endearing graces on “Hell of a Time” featured off the forthcoming debut New Religion EP available November 17. Romantic insinuations, invitations & gestures allude to one heckuva great time that awaits all listeners looking for ecstatic indulgences after the day’s work has been completed & the sun has disappeared from the view of the horizon.
Thom Gillies, of Vesuvio Solo, delivered the new Halloween themed single “Haunted Love (Tunnel Vision)” that takes you through the analog tunnels of love toward lo-fi frequencies of fun & other freakish delights. The track is the sound of something your parents or grandparents would have bumped back in the slippery 70s where classic junkshop jams & crooners come full circle into the contemporary audio frame.
Hookworks announced the new album Microshift available February 2 through Domino & dropped the Joseph May video for “Negative Space” that re-envisions the mathematical sound through a host of three dimensional shape clusters. Recovering after the flooding of their studio, Hookworms’ follow-up to The Hum promises to be a dazzling treat for the entirety of the senses where clever rhythms & inventive arrangement schemes are the order of future days soon to follow.
Palm presented us with a look at the throwback CGI visuals from Greg O’Connell for “Pearly” featured off their upcoming album Rock Island available February 9 from Carpark Records. A host of freewheeling sounds are coupled with animated digital visions of bright colors & sprites that feels as if you have slipped into some PC video game daydream of sorts.
Parlor Social’s Dessy Di Lauro & Ric’key Pageot with strings conducted by Dr. Benjamin Wright unveiled the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover of “I Put a Spell On You” ft. Mr. Act Now Or Never. The classic southern standard that goes deeper than the expanses & extents of the Delta provides a new bombastic contemporary take on the classic with some new sinewy sense of atmospheres & midnight ambiance.
Behold the Chris Hill video for South Florida’s own sibling group AnastasiaMax with school day tales of dramas & traumas conveyed via “All Went Black”. Reflections on the actions of others with an anti-bullying message moves these moments of committed to the kindling of a bonfire of resounding & realized confidence.
Party out to the yacht pop vibes of STAL’s “Fresh Blood” featured off the forthcoming eponymous EP available in March where the feeling of over the top festival vibes sails out toward international waters where heightened buzz synths are bounced off a litany of iconographic name-checking.
NYC duo QTY are readying their debut self-titled album Dirty Hit (produced by former-Sude dude/rock icon Bernard Butler) December 8, providing a listen to the stripped down sincerity of “New Beginnings” that strums with a new take & feeling on life. With hearts of gratitude & thanks, QTY exhibits both a keen sheen of sound both amplified to the max or toned down to focus in on all the feels.
Utica NY’s The Make Pretend recently released the album Fortune Factory that rambles with an eclectic & inspired cycle of restless troubadour ballads. From opening apologies of shrugs & roses on “Sorry I Let You Down” to the big city light thrills of “New York Yeah”; the ups & downs are celebrated with a sense of honesty where life’s won fortunes are matched with the collective losses that occur along the same dusty & rusty roads.
Take in the feeling of getting lost & mesmerized in the woods via the visuals for “Falling” from Isador. Featuring direction from the artist & Charlie Heller, the mystical pull from the great natural unknown is witnessed in a narrative of abandon & harmonic echoes.
Ace Harper delivered the ENDS directed video featuring design & special effects from Justin Hantz with choreography by Tracy Phillips for “Mouth Wide Open” that entertains open minded situations amid an array of arresting visuals. A radio odyssey set in a moving collage piece; Harper accentuates the exchanges & expressions that occur amid the two way streets of romantic dialogues amid slick dance moves & an overwhelming arrangement of overwhelming & eye-catching visual elements edited together.
Oliver Hazard from Waterville, Ohio strummed some down home love with the empirical narratives that hop graciously along the tracks on “Caesar Knows”. From emperors in new threads & empires kitted out in new attire; the trio deals in contemporary tales with a timeless & holistic sense of style & rustic vigor.
Fran Lobo offered up the new single “High” that rises like vapors of heated steam, following up on the single “WAR” & the lauded Beautiful Blood EP. Arriving with news of a forthcoming EP, the South London artist on the rise interjects heightened clouds of feeling that rise above the fog & soot in the curtain-shuddered luster of twilight.
Chemtrails dropped the new distorted & delightful single “A Killer or a Punchline” featured off their forthcoming album Calf of the Sacred Cow available February 9 via PNKSLM. The lo-fi & the no-fi mix together like a wacked-out oil meets water solution, where the cranked-up treble will shatter the windows & bring the entire neighborhood/city together in unified, singing harmony with hands clasped together in cooperative congress.
