On Que 9’s “Be Long”, a dark and brooding instrumentation is able to provide a compelling counterpoint to the richer, lighter word play that plays at the top of the track. Booming bass ensures that one is able to step out on the dance floor, while the rapid-fire flow that Que 9 spits at the 45-second mark will keep fans firmly stuck in their seats. Be Long is an effort…
Coming off with a vibe close to the first Jonny Polonsky record or the output from Daniel Johnston, Matthew Squires latest is bedroom pop at it’s best. The production, though cleaner on Squires album than the other examples, is minimal at best allowing for the songs to come across in the most organic, natural form possible. It’s been just three years since his last release, but his knack for writing…
URL: https://smomid.com/about/ Smomid’s Pyramidi Scheme is the latest electronic-themed release from guitarist Nick Demopoulos and his most defiant release yet. I use the word defiant, but it isn’t aggression. His defiance, instead, manifests itself as a resolute refusal to give more than passing acknowledgment to conventional musical structures and instrumentation. Smomid, instead, prefers to follow the road less taken. There are some tracks recorded for Pyramidi Scheme with familiar sounding elements, even melodies, and…
At the invitation of longtime friend Lucinda Williams, Jesse Malin caught her opening set at Tom Petty’s final show. That moment eventually led to Malin writing the beautifully sanguine “Shinning Down” (complete with a perfect Petty jangle guitar sound throughout), a track midway through Malin’s latest Sunset Kids. The song is a brilliant encapsulation of the record, carrying on Malin’s punk-bred singer/songwriter vibe that has defined his solo career; songs…
Giadora has made quite an impression on the local Los Angeles scene without ever embracing the attendant eccentricities often defining the pop/dance music style. Her first singe “Twisted” shows she is far from some cookie performer and, instead, rates as one of the more fully rounded talents active in the pop music world today. Despite a beginning in Los Angeles venues that featured Giadora alone with nothing but her acoustic…
Ezra Furman made the declaration recently that Twelve Nudes is his punk record and as much as he’s flirted with the genre over his past few albums, the anger, spiked guitars and red-throated vocals are clearly front and center here. That vibe is underscored perfectly with the scorching opening track “Calm Down aka I Should Not be Alone” careening to a crash after a Ramones-appropriate two-minutes-and-22 seconds. Some of the…
It’s been almost a decade since Rob Laufer last focused on his own music. In the interim, he served as a producer, songwriter, guitarist for hire and music director for Wild Honey Orchestra. While he was in high demand from others, his voice as a solo artist was sorely missed over the past nine years. The Floating World is proof that not a bit of rust set in on his own work.…
Soft vocal harmonies adorn the lush opening bars of the surreal acoustic ballad “Almost an Angel,” and while their boldly evocative textures are all the more pronounced thanks to a brilliant delivery from singer Rachel Adams, they represent but a sliver of the unfiltered emotionality that listeners will discover when browsing the tracklist of Still Gushing, the first studio album from Nocturnal Blonde. Nocturnal Blonde was formed with the mission of…
“The Smoke And The Stars,” the opening track off of Jason Hawk Harris’s debut album is an impressive, emotional ballad, but one that belies what’s to follow shortly. The building swell of strings and deeply personal lyrics sounds amazing, but ultimately (and thankfully), Harris devotes much of the record to a more stripped down, laid back, wink and a nod approach to Americana. “Cussing At The Light,” the very next…
Rollicking strings saturated in pristine white fuzz adorn the opening bars of “Discover,” but as we’ll soon discover, their measured strut is but one of the sensuous ingredients that Kazyak will employ in the sonic stew that this engrossing composition is. A powerful vocal harmony soars into the heavens from which it came in the climactic chorus, and believe it or not, its staggered catharsis is only a drop in…
Not long before Kim Fowley pulled together and ultimately terrorized (or inspired depending on whose version of the story you’re following) the brilliant teenaged, all-female rock band The Runaways, he helped establish the nearly as brilliant, but short-lived, glam rock/power pop five piece The Hollywood Stars. Fowley pulled in a disparate collection of Southern California musicians and went about co-writing, producing and working on his Svengali-in-training role with the group.…
Trap Boomin immediately stands out from the rest of modern rap music due to an unmatched backing beat that incorporates a bit of an Asian-inspired sound. DLRN’s flow hits all the high marks in terms of memorable repetition of phrases and strong, confident lyrics. The feature laid down here by Rich The Kid keeps things fresh while dovetailing nicely with the main body of Trap Boomin. A bombastic introduction, DLRN’s…
Heels is a beautiful track that showcases the passion and ability of Mike Jay. Heels shines based on a lush beat that blends in sweeping synths and a fat bass line. The sultry, sexy vox of Mike Jay here build upon the tradition of Chris Brown or Trey Songz. There’s an addition layer of vocal harmony impressed upon Heels that catapults the effort into the upper echelon of pop-radio performances.…
During Lost Identity, Sonic Rade are able to cultivate a 1980s-synthrock infused sound. A thick, chunky bass line highlights the ethereal vocals, which will appease fans of Peter Murphy or Disintegration-era Robert Smith. The act is taut, crafting a backing instrumentation that holds up to repeat plays. A driving beat punctuates the back of the track as the vocals and guitars are given the spotlight. A particularly poignant moment occurs…
On Chasing Whatever, Trouble in the Streets are able to blend pop, haunting new wave, and EDM into something that is wholly unique. Multiple vocal layers and a dense instrumentation ensure that fans will find new twists and turns even 5 or 10 plays in. The rap-infused flow that is weaved through Chasing Whatever provides further variety to an already eclectic output. Trouble in The Streets shake off any potential…
Stripped-down blue collar punk rock anthems are certainly not a new phenomenon. Everyone from Tim Barry and Frank Turner to Dave Hause have made a living crisscrossing the globe for the past decade-plus playing Springsteen meets The Clash-inspired ditties. But, Dylan Disaster’s latest, Remission, proves there’s still room for at least one more on the tour bus. Thirteen tracks cram the latest from this Long Island native, now calling Austin…
Hints of Sarah McLachlan and Paula Cole can be heard on Beth Bombara’s I Only Cry When I’m Alone. A vocal-heavy approach allows Beth to bring tremendous emotion and gravity to the composition, as a taut instrumentation replete with empathetic guitars and insistent bass keeps things on track throughout. The bit of instrumental jam that is inserted into Upside Dowbn establishes the two sections of the effort as wholly different…
In his new single, the brilliantly melodic “Be My Main,” Allocai is discussing love, lust and the life that we all try to live in between the two in one of the most poetic tracks the young songwriter has dropped to date. “Be My Main” is structured as to keep our focus on its airy lead vocal from beginning to end, but despite the highly stylized lyricisms the he dispenses,…
Most critics will agree with me when I say that country music is reshaping its identity right now, and it’s partly due to the influx of alternative, folk-influenced and Canadian talent entering an arena that has traditionally been dominated by artists who are anything but. Among the more interesting newcomers that I’ve had the pleasure of coming across this month is none other than the Canadian two-piece The Promised, whose…
“Why can’t we pretend? / It’s not me… it’s them / Why did we believe? / That this would be okay” croons Sharon Lia in “Why Can’t We Pretend?,” the new single from her eponymous band’s upcoming studio album Beyond Wonderland, every word glistening with as much of a reflective nuance as the music in the background does. Lia is all heart in this single and the album from which it…