Week in Pop
Bruiser Queen dropped a listen to the a-side of their 7″ with the “freaking out tonight” garage fun of “Telepathic Mind” b/w “Rainbow in the Dark” available soon from Certified PR Records soon. The duo of Morgan Nusbaum & Jason Potter are working on an upcoming album titled Heavy High available in 2017 that promises upper latitudes & groovy gravitatioal longitudes & attitudes.
Uncle Meg (the gender smashing emcee from Hand Job Academy) took us for a cruising stroll through the back roads & parts unknown of New Mexico in the self-made video for “I Love Being Bad” ft. SamWise. Featured off the forthcoming album Bug available November 4; SamWise & UM bring the anarchy, middle fingers blazing, candles lit, as the tires keep on rotating in time to the track’s own ghost-like quality.
Caila Thompson-Hannant, oka Mozart’s Sister recently dropped the Arbutust tape that features the james “Angel” & “Eternally Girl” & we give you a remix listen to the latter from Kero Kero Bonito’s Gus Lobban, aka Kane West. Caila’s vocal range here is able to shine in manners where Lobban’s re-arrangement designs dazzle & sparkle all around like freeze-frame audio fireworks.
Stronger Sex dropped the new super-charged track “Dating” available today from BLIGHT. Records with a special performance happening tonight at DC’s Kennedy Center. Johnny Fantastic & Leah Gage (of BRNDA) create hyper-ballads that dance & depicts illustrations of unrestrained romances that exceeds the bounds & contrivances of gender & superlatives where all expression is unleashed through a plethora of amplified electronic instruments.
Lisa Prank presented a satire of the 1992 gen-x flick Singles with her Space Needle soaring video for “Luv Is Dumb” off her album Adult Teen available from Father / Daughter Records that follows up Crush On The World. The imaginative visuals & instantly catchy DIY pop from Robin Edwards is a bastion of anarchic aesthetics from the northwest as our Seattle heroes continue to bust out of the underground and onto the national & international stages.
Go for a skateboard ride with with Thos Henley in the Christian Myrén video for “Long Time Feeling” where he sings out his heart while skating along winding roads amid bucolic surroundings. Found off hisBlonde on Basically Ginger available November 18 from Pan European Recording. The English artist takes cues from the modernist songwriter Paul Williams where his passion for piano lead balladry bursts forth in compositions that have various suites & movements that help tell heart-strung tales. From the skating visuals to the menagerie of illustrious keys; Thos takes us through the course & motions of cherished relationship all the way to the very end with the song’s lyrics of departure exhibited in the closing refrain of “we are through.”
Future PEERS, featuring Luke Correia-Damude, Michael Loebl, Antonio Naranjo & William Culbert previously of Boys Who Say No shared the excitement & rapid rhythms of “Craft” featured off their debut self-titled album available from Phi Rho Sigma, December 9. The “Craft” that the group deal in here is a force of nature that is a complete blur of unleashed fury.
We had the honor & privilege of introducing you to the debut listen to Anthony Valadez’s Prelude to the Fade and we have the pleasure now of treating you to a listen to “Sweet Tooth” ft. Adad found off the upcoming Fade Away album. Available November 4 from Plug Research, “Sweet Tooth” finds Valadez showing off some of most subterranean skills & styles we have witness to date.
Diamond Ortiz brought the big natural funk with the single “Natural Fun” ft. Monique featured off the upcoming album Loveline available November 18 from MoFunk Records. The Ohio by the Bay Area artists takes the styles you recall from Ohio Players, Tower of Power & builds upon their creative styles & expressions with an electric yet organic mix & twist.
Featured off their upcoming album 50|50, check out MIKNNA’s single “302” that deals in alluring electro rhythms & Don Juan deliveries that provide ambience for when the lights go low.
Launching the WOMANPRODUCER web series feed that celebrates all female/trans/non-binary producers; Melissa Dyne & Khaela Maricich, oka The Blow, provided some colorful minimalist visuals for their illustrious electro-pop brilliance of “Think About Me”. Paying tribute to their lesser championed women who have shaped our musical & cultural landscapes as we know them; “Think About Me” is The Blow paying it forward while pushing along the possibilities in synth pop pronouncements & the many musical forms that synths can convey.
Very Fresh aka Cindy Lou Gooden of the all female Pavement cover band Babement, released the ballad “Hat Tree” featured off the upcoming Hey, It’s Me! EP available November 4 from New Professor Music/Inflated Records. Gooden takes her keen take on alt. pop to smart style of gathered anecdotes & narratives that move & sway with pendulum-like motions of a backyard swing moving underneath an auburn sky.
Johnny Popcorn from Philadelphia are Hezekiah, Jani Coral & Tone Whitfield who dropped the Dasheen directed video for “Go Go Go” found off their new album Totem Pole available from Mad Dragon Records. The JP group provide some upbeat & down-home sounds that will keep you moving while reigniting your passions & directions in life all at the same time. An event not to be missed.
Check out the strange world of sport-suit & sneaker fetishes mixed with water in the Zak Keene video for Night Helix’s “Dark Water” off American Scream. Behold the utter weirdness as pool & bath dances in track pants, sneakers & shirt is put to NH’s cold dancing electric arrangements that create a techno party for future spaces and sporty, aquatic places. Ben Ross Davis mixes internet oddities with attire obsessions that dovetail neatly into his own unique brand of electronic aesthetics.
Nashville’s Okey Dokey is made of folks from The Weeks, Sol Cat, Bully, & so forth and we have the video for “Wavy Gravy” from Anthony Simpkins that showcases the band getting all kinds weird & wavy. Featured off their Love You, Mean It album, the Nashville supergroup in their own right provides some stoned psych-romantic ballads that keeps it trippy while laying on the sappy expressions with the utmost of sentimental saccharine. Okey Dokey has made doo-wop more relevant for the DIY scenes again and have made themselves a Nashville act to keep a very close ear on.
Introduce yourself to Houston’s JERK who make super skanking & syrupy electric rhythms as we get to savor their new single “Delicacy” from their debut EP available November 11. The track moves with a strutting progression like strolling down the sidewalk with an excessive amount of confidence.
The Last Shadow Puppets’ The Dream Synopsis EP will be available December 2 from Domino and we present a listen & view of their Leonard Cohen cover of “Is This What You Wanted” featuring visuals from Focus Creeps. With grandiose visuals, the video plays with pushing maximalism with minimal means for dramatic & attention catching effect.
The Pendletons’ (E Da Boss of Myron & E with Trailer Limon) Gotta Get Out EP will be available November 18 from Voltaire Records and we give you the title track that features Jimetta Rose & I, CED that features the crew hanging around and seeking a sense of motivation amid the pressure of work, bills, rent & more. Real life struggles find The Pendletons & friends throwing themselves a big house party where problems are toasted up in a “rent party” to possibly pay off debts & forget about the b.s. for a minute.
Ten Fé presents their Guy Nisbett for Soap Films’ video for “Turn” featured off their Ewan Pearson produced debut from SOME KINDA LOVE / [PIAS] where thoughts & feelings of longing & desire are musically expressed in emotive richness & a gentle beauty.
Those searching for that super-sultry & electric lover’s rock that matches well with late evening drives; then embrace your suave self with the big single “Quantum Immortality” from Crywolf that makes an attempt to break through the life & death continuum.
The Chain Gang of 1974 recent single “I Still Wonder” was recently given The New Division remix treatment where every vocal utterance and item of production is pushed to the ultimate pop realization that glows like a radio antenna beacon amid the night’s darkened veil.
Split Single’s new album Metal Frames will be available November 18 and we give you the album artwork video for “Blank Ribbons” where visuals from the new release & more are set to the kinetic sound.
I Have A Tribe recently released their debut album via Grönland & we have their Myles O’Reilly video for “Cuckoo” that features home performances & warm exchanges between friends to match the intimate & acoustic style of Patrick O’Laoghaire.
Melbourne, Australia’s Bloodhounds On My Trail dropped the single “Places Like This” that is featured off their upcoming Haunted Isles EP available November 18 from Moon Sounds Records. The follow up to their Escape II EP features the dream poppers pushing their vintage sneaker-staring sounds through the brick wall barriers & big boulder barricades that lead to the new dawn of tomorrow’s new realized audio constructs. The Melbourne group pours on the feeling through layers & layers of cascading chords that maneuver & sweetly careen like the serene stream of a river met at a waterfall tributary crossroads.
Crystal Fighters shared the the new single “Lay Low” featured off their upcoming third album Everything Is My Family available today from [PIAS] where they deliver a glimmering sound reminiscent of the headiest festival vibes around.
Future Generations shared their fancy new video for “Stars” directed by Arturo Olmos featuring special effects from Erick Céspedes & animated drawings by Mickey Junco. Found off their Frenchkiss debut, Future Generations provide some of that ultra-pop for those latter eras to re-discover like pop vibes packed into a time capsule.
Communist Daughter dropped the video for “Hold Back” to celebrate the release of their album where the sung pop hesitations are given visuals that involve futuristic medical sciences and united bonds that are made beneath the stars that match the illumination of the city lights at night.
Rest your weary heart & head on the beautifully strummed sentiments featured off Keith Johns’ Grateful Fool EP. From “Up and Away” through “Aubade”; Keith lays it all out on the line in dramatic arrangements that are executed in everything that runs the gamut from grand execution to sparse deliveries.
Featured off the upcoming debut album Uptown Islands, Downtown Ghosts, Danny Golden dropped the Thomas Burke video filmed in Austin, TX that sees the artist expressing electric guitar strung romanticism that is delivered direct from the heart.
Check out the beautiful & sultry crooner “Beautiful Human” from SVFARI. The UK artist shares a series of endearing electric rhythms & lyrics with a host of evening atmospheres.
Watch the Shannon Palmer video for “Only You Remain” from Baltimore’s own Great American Canyon Band that follows the group traveling all about the land of the midnight sun in Iceland during the Summer Solstice. Kris & Paul Masson create their wild & vast sweeping landscapes of sound that reiterate their bond in the reiterations of “never break us apart” while choral & pop orchestral arrangements rain down along with the intimate & earnest visuals. This video also marks the debuts a new mix for “Only You Remain” that will be found on the Out Here EP available digitally October 28.
Oscar Jerome, fka Oscar Laurence, shared with us the gorgeous video for “Get Back What You Stole From Me” that features illustrations from Gaurab Thakali found off his self-titled EP available November 2. The visuals from S G Rigal & Maxwell Owin move about a variety of image projections coupled with melodic lyrics that push toward a greater social consciousness.
You are invited to get lifted with Almanac Mountain on “Harborside” found off the new album CRYPTOSEISMOLOGY that brings all the fall-feels of sitting on the dock of a bay and pondering the big questions that reverberate the most.
Hear Parlour Tricks bright lit single “Need Somebody” that brings the brightest lit pop desires featured off the upcoming Bodies EP available October 28. The NYC artist takes the most immediate necessities & translates them to FM radio hooks designed for tomorrow’s airwaves.
Catch the single “Can’t Hang On” along with the Shiny Objects Remix “Dub Version” from Brooklyn’s own Body Language who follow up their album Social Studies with the upcoming LP Mythos available November 4 from San Francisco’s legendary imprint Om Records. Body Language provides something for the super-relaxed & chill lounge while Shiny Objects dubs the tracks stems to a whole other dimension with some newly introduced rhythm patterns.
Peep the adventurous Kyle Mumford video for “Tonight” from Modern Inventors that shares some evening animated overtures to dream & wish upon. The heroism is displayed like urban saviors that do supernatural things while MI bring about the big pop passions musically.
FaltyDL presents the drone hovering video for “Whispering Air” from Michael Tan off the just released Heaven is for Quitters available today from Blueberry Records. Created utilizing 3D models and TiltBrush VR; we are witnessed to diminishing environments set to FaltyDL’s ambient piano key electronica.
Jacques Greene sent out the shine & beat shimmering single “Afterglow” taken off the upcoming 12″ available October 28 that features exclusive extended versions of this track & “You Can’t Deny”. The beats & synth push with a future forward notion of where drum & bass-based music might be headed.
Check out the trippy image morphing video from Kristian Levring for “Wishbone” by Oh Land that provides visuals of metaphysical & natural alterations to compliment the soft acoustic folks strums.
June Divided shared some passionate hearts painted with ultra-radio pop paints on the single “I Didn’t Mind” that offers up emotive reflections on past bonds & exchanges. Featured of the upcoming December 2 slated EP Body Wars, Mel Menago takes reflections on the meanings from moments that couples nostalgic & pensive notions with their respective relevance to the present.
The Olympians’ shared a listen to the sea-king soul reign revue of “Neptune”, a shining gem featured off their forthcoming self-titled available October 28 from Daptone Records. The most lush instrumental throwback soundtrack of your dreams is about to arrive.
Featured off psych-pop nu-gods’ Dinowalrus’s new album Fairweather, dive into the day-tripping video for “Tides” that will recalls what could have been the best Bobby Gillespie or Richard Ashcroft single that they never ever recorded back in the 90s.
Hooton Tennis Club brought us the track “Bad Dream (Breakdown On St. George’s Mount)” available off their just released album Big Box Of Chocolates via Heavenly Recordings. The Liverpool band brings back your favorite swaggering vintage heroes with a super suave & self-assured sound to match.
DC’s Flasher is comprised of Priests’ Taylor Mulitz, Emma Baker from Big Hush & Daniel Saperstein from Bless, dropped their Drew Hagelin video for “Destroy” that delivers smart & succinct chords & expressive lyrics. Featured off their debut self-titled EP (originally released on cassette in April), the tape is receiving a reissue November 18 through Sister Polygon Records will be reissuing the record on wax. This could be one of your new favorite bands of 2016, if not already.
Baloji brings more nu-global styles with the exciting video for “Spoiler” featured off the upcoming EP 64 Bits & Malachite available November 4 from Bella Union. Problems are discarded for some of the most progressions & deliveries that combine Congolese approaches with a worldly conscientious view.
Those looking for some Windy City trax will appreciate Lacuna’s single “Clyde” that grooves like an exuberant underground dance hit. Like an obscure blank label pressing from an even more esoteric Euro imprint; “Clyde” is the jam that you want playing at your next super secret underground basement dance party.
Fifi Rong dropped a listen to her new moody & massive single “Future Never Comes” available November 4 that entertains the present and the possibility of a tomorrow that might never arrive. Slow spinning synth & restrained rhythms provide electronic illuminations that point toward new possible directions and pop audio dimensions.
Ben Hobbs brought some big bold ultra-pop with the “take your best shot” provocations on the electrified single “Take the Blame” that casts mud & pointed fingers in all directions.
Brooklyn’s Mainland dropped the single “Permission Slip” that eschews the formalities for a dance pop sensibility that will keep your feet moving like blazing heels sharp enough & ready to slice up any ballroom rug.
From Brilliance Records, feast your senses on Living’s “A Light” available now ahead of the upcoming self-titled EP available November 18. The sensations of a new day & fall season beginning resound in the production & delivery that creates a sense of genuine excitement & a unhinged bliss.
Behold the lyrical video for “Start A War” featured off the album Doors To the City from The Soonest that tackles the rumors of conflicts & tensions that cause flash points to spark up in a manner that seeks truths in an immediate fashion.
Daniel Woolhouse, the artist formerly known as Deptford Goth, presents “Soup For Brains” featured off the What’s That Sound? album available October 28 from 37 Adventures where circular cycles are illustrated from Daniel’s own personal perspectives about striving to break the repetitions for something new & even more meaningful.
