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Josaleigh Pollett Guides Us Out of the Hypnosis of Insomniac Thoughts With Electro Pop Single “Bed of Quiet”

“Bed of Quiet” finds Josaleigh Pollett initially sketching thoughts against a backdrop of impressionistic sound but goes into gear exploring themes of insomniac thinking. The steady beat and Pollett’s voice anchor the song while swells of tone and minimal guitar comes in to accent lines until the song expands into full-flung expression before seemingly fading into a harmonic outro. The song captures well the sort of thoughts one can go over endlessly when you can’t sleep if you’re prone to overthinking mistakes and better options because you could have made better decisions for your life and how it can be hard to accept your perceived mistakes rather than accept that maybe your conscious mind can’t know or think of everything or account for every possibility in the moment. Life can present itself to you as a high stakes game but most things in life aren’t necessarily imbued with a sense of catastrophe yet we can convince ourselves that everything is a life or death decision without considering the pressure we put on ourselves and others in the process. The song takes on a more playful tone than that and feels more like an odd yet soothing dream given its themes of nighttime anxiety and in that way serves as a passage out of that headspace. Listen to “Bed of Quiet” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. Pollett is touring this summer in the wake of the release of the new album If I Let It Quiet out July 24, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Josaleigh Pollett on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E6: White Rose Motor Oil

White Rose Motor Oil, photo courtesy the artists

White Rose Motor Oil is an Americana/cowpunk duo from Denver that launched in 2018. Singe/guitarist Eryn DeSomer and drummer Keith Hoerig-DeSomer were both members of notable alt-country bands The Hollyfelds and The Jeckylls in 2000s and 2010s. Hoerig-DeSomer was also one of the founding and longtime members of ska-punk/rock band Five Iron Frenzy. By 2016 The Jeckylls were winding down and Eryn DeSomer played some solo shows but that evolved into White Rose Motor Oil by 2018 when Hoerig-DeSomer decided he would learn to play drums. From the beginning WRMO was playing regular gigs and as part of its circuit it would play out of town shows regionally and well beyond. Its lively and emotionally-charged music equal parts garage rock, punk and alt-country and straight ahead country with some deep mood in the mix garnered the band a following and the duo has released a string of EPs and albums all along including the excellent 2023 album The Gift of Poison. One thing that has set the band apart is how its music fits in fine with a broad spectrum of bookings because the presentation has a lot of spirit and edge and the superb songwriting and DeSomer’s powerful and charismatic vocals transcend specific genre. Also its simple format of drums, guitar and vocals comes across as much more forceful than seems likely. The band also regularly donates money to causes for social and civil rights justice because it’s obvious the world could use some encouragement at improvement and even a casual listen to band’s music reveals it’s about more than just entertainment. Look for the band’s new album out on vinyl, download and streaming on Halloween 2026.

White Rose Motor Oil performs at Blucifer’s First Rodeo (aka Blucifer Fest) on Friday, July 24, 2026 at 6PM at Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar. You can also catch WRMO at The Skylark Lounge on Tuesday, August 11 at The Skylark Lounge with Minot and Zealot, at Rugby Rocks Festival on Saturday, August 29 at 1PM in Aguilar, Colorado and at Bar 404 for the album release show on Saturday, October 31 at 7PM.

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White Rose Motor Oil on Bandcamp

White Rose Motor Oil on Instagram

Annie Elise’s Intimate and Otherworldly Synth Pop Single “make a wish” Encourages Us to Act On Our Dreams

One of the things that is immediately striking about Annie Elise’s single “make a wish” is how it establishes a dreamlike mood with sounds seemingly drawn from “vintage” electronic sources of the late Twentieth Century. The vocals are processed and the arpeggiated synths sequenced like they were originally composed on an 8-bit or 16-bit machine. And the sound palette is both reminiscent of early chillwave and a more modern glitch aesthetic at the same time. The effect is song that creates a psychological space for the listener to consider the song’s themes of yearning and the need to act on one’s dreams and desires rather than be stuck in a state of stasis being held captive by hyperfocused aspirations and reach for what you really want and not merely what you’ve told yourself is the only perfection worth pursuing. Fans of early Purity Ring will appreciate Elise’s arrangements and inventive use of tone and processing of sound sources to lend them a paradoxically intimate and charmingly otherworldly quality with sonically rich resonance. Listen to “make a wish” on Spotify and follow Annie Elise at the links provided.

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Annie Elise on TikTok

Annie Elise on Instagram

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Charlotte Greve’s Cinematic Pop Single “Membranes” Layers Vocals, Drones and Playful Rhythms to Express Leaning Into an Acceptance of Impermanence

Charlotte Greve’s simple percussion and low key bass line paired with her layered vocals and ethereal synth drones lend “Membranes” a cinematic quality reminiscent of the more experimental end of tUnE-yArDs. One images images akin to the multi-media presentations of mid-80s Laurie Anderson particularly when the expressive sax comes in the later parts of the song and the ways in which Greve accents her vocal lines to lend the words a thematic and visual aspect as she sings about the constant motion and forward momentum of her mind and body that she seems unable to fully control as embodied by the line “If there’s one thing that does not change it is the will to change.” Then words about trusting one’s inner processes and leaning into the impermanence of the current moment and embracing the changes that are beneficial while working through those which seem challenging. Greve’s facility with combining rhythm, texture and melody as a unified whole with a playful and direct energy makes the single fascinating beginning to end. Listen to “Membranes” on Spotify and follow Charlotte Greve on Instagram. Her new album WATERBODIES releases October 2, 2026 via New Amsterdam.

Akiyoshi Yasuda’s Ambient Piece “day4 by memento” Induces the Listener Into a Deep and Transformative Environmental Awareness

Akiyoshi Yasuda, photo courtesy the artist

Akiyoshi Yasuda immediately puts us in a time and place that feels familiar yet enigmatic from the beginning of “day4 by memento.” The constantly present harmonic drone is like the background energy of an urban environment like a steady presence of the human collective. The layers of textural rhythm and resonating tones and swells of abstract sounds all interact to create a tapestry of noise that flows into your brain like becoming fully aware of the world around you that you normally take for granted which could be startling but Yasuda’s composition is more soothing and it causes you to pay attention to details you might not otherwise and notice things like the occasional processed piano work through the haze of closer sound sources mixing with all other sensory elements. The song is like a musical Zen experience in which one becomes present and accepting of what is around you without judgment or becoming overwhelmed by one’s hyper awareness. And then the sonic energy recedes seeming to have taken no time but in fact brought you along for that journey for over five minutes. The production on the piece itself is impressive for how Yasuda placed each sound component and orchestrated them all for a singular listening experience that conveyed experiences beyond what music often does. Listen to “day4 by memento” on Spotify and follow the Japanese composer at the links provided.

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Akiyoshi Yasuda on Instagram

Bondo’s Hypnotic Yet Cathartic Post-Hardcore Single “Running Back” Draws You In With Its Sonic Contrasts

Bondo seems to sketch and stretch out musical ideas on “Running Back,” like its structure was arranged like stringing together journal entries. Connecting thoughts and feelings with a hypnotic and meditative bass line and drums. The vocals are nearly laconic and meditative but the guitar fractures that peace and feeds back slightly to give the song some evocative dissonance. The song’s mood is reminiscent of a more mellow Unwound or more discordant Versus song which is what makes it immediately relistenable. It is economical in its composition and hits the dramatic notes at the right times with a sense of emotional urgency. What isn’t as obvious initially is how it isn’t conventional in its structure. There is no intro or outro, just moments in time in the songwriting and the way it draws you into its dreamlike tone and thrilling moments of peak catharsis. Watch the video for “Running Back” on YouTube and follow Bondo at the links below. The band’s latest, self-titled, album releases July 24, 2026 on limited vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Bondo on Instagram

Bondo on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E05: Michael McGrath

Michael McGrath, photo courtesy Amy McGrath

Michael McGrath is one of the premier live music photographers based out of Colorado. Born in the Bronx, McGrath found himself seeing the Rolling Stones play Folsom Field in Boulder in 1981 and found a resonance with the state and has lived in New Mexico and Colorado since. Having studied at University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and University of New Mexico in Albuquerque he took advantage of his access to camera equipment and film processing facilities to focus on his early endeavors in live music photography. Since around the mid 90s McGrath has shot for New York Times, The Denver Post, Vice, Relix and various other publications. His photos of Yoko Ono were included in the impressive one volume career retrospective of her work titled Infinite Universe At Dawn. These days McGrath is the primary photographer for the music website Audiovore. All of these details, though, leave out McGrath’s presence in Denver as one of the most active photographers of live music for over a decade and a half always capturing the essence of the show and knowing how to get the right lighting and angle to convey the life inherent in the subjects of his photos with high quality equipment. You can see him patiently and quietly getting the perfect images knowing so many of the rooms well and the lighting situations he is likely to encounter and how to adapt to dynamic situations. But beyond being a photographer McGrath has become a part of the local music community because of his expansive personality, inherent friendliness and unpretentious grace. The world of music through McGrath’s lens is a better place than we’re used to and one you want to be involved with because it lends the art a timeless and compelling quality that isn’t present in all concert photography and an intuitive sense of composition born of inherent skill and honed practice. The interview presented is very casual with plenty of surprises and left turns.

Listen to our interview with Michael McGrath on Bandcamp and follow his work at the links below. He, his wife Amy and one of their children Molly, a musician and writer, will be guests at the next Analog Salon at Posner Center for International Development on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 with doors and DJ at 6pm, talk at 7pm during which the family will in the tradition of the event discuss some of the records that most impacted them. Molly’s band Tassles will also play a set.

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Michael McGrath on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E04: Emily Rach Beisel

Emily Rach Beisel released their sophomore album Sumptuous Branching via avant-garde label Amalgam on April 10, 2026. The album informed partly by late medieval chant and its use of intertwining voices and a kind of organic sonic architecture free of the strictures of codified modern music theory and expectations on the part of the artist and listener. Beisel is a Chicago-based composer, improviser, educator, curator and specialist in woodwinds known for commanding and visceral live performances in which they employ extended technoque in vocals and instrumentals with analog electronics as part of the musical pieces. The album has an entrancing enigmatic quality with an expansive heaviness balanced with a keen sense of emotional atmospherics. While working on the album Beisel was reading Mark Z. Danielewski’s 2000 album House of Leaves and for the track “Cantilevers” in particular the novel’s lack of conventional resolution and a suggestion of endless pathways of endless varieties finds a parallel with Beisel’s idea of a chant in which the distinct voices often begin together but go along to their natural trajectories. Beisel conceived of the album as a set of songs that had a unified quality that could be performed live as a solo artist. Listening to the album one can hear the challenge of presenting the material live with its complex layers and rhythms yet it also feels of a piece that tells a story of a mythical journey of personal transformation through audacious creative action. Fans of Sun Ra’s more out there synth explorations and Popol Vuh’s more cosmic folk and drone leanings will deeply appreciate Beisel’s cinematic compositions and their willingness to go off standard musical paths. Sumptuous Branching is out now on limited vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Listen to our interview with Emily Rach Beisel on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below.

emilyrachbeisel.com

Emily Rach Beisel on Bandcamp

Emily Rach Beisel on Instagram

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Coloma’s Introspective and Melancholic Dream Pop Single “Skylights” Eases Lingering Emotional Turmoil With Its Gentle Touch

Coloma brings an intimate air to “Skylights” with a steady, jazz-like beat and gentle guitar accents and gossamer melodies around deeply introspective, melancholic vocals. It has a reflective mood processing sadness and a sense of guilt over how things have gone and a yearning for some kind of reconciliation. In moments the way the vocals and guitar are arranged and sync up in their tones is reminiscent of early Mojave 3, Mazzy Star and the more dreamlike moments of Throwing Muses. The tenderly shimmering slowcore style of the song keeps you engaged with its expansive vulnerability and in the emotional moment and treating psychological pain with the gentleness required to get through the toughest dips in mood and truly feel the feelings one might bury on initial impact in order to not be sunk by them. The sensitive and subtle production all around really helps the song to shine and for the emotional beats to hit perfectly. Listen to “Skylights” on YouTube and follow Coloma at the links provided.

Coloma on Instagram

Coloma on Apple Music

Moodlighting’s Effervescent Single “Guardrail” is a Dream Pop Song About the Foibles of the Tourist Mindset

Moodlighting, photo courtesy the artists

Moodlighting has been talented at crafting simple and uplifting melodies with guitar and vocals from its early days when the duo was performing in Denver before relocating to California. Its new single “Guardrail” is paired with “Rude sometimes” and the song showcases layers of delicate guitar with crystalline tone and expertly accented, chiming jangle riffs that complement perfectly almost ethereal vocals like a latter day Slumberland Records. The song sparkles and sounds like it’s dancing about with how the rhythms are arranged. And yet the song appears to be about being annoyed with tourists in Australia, you know the kind, that treat places they visit like an exotic and disposable commodity instead of a place with a true sense of place and organic community that has to contend with how attractive it is to people who don’t feel like they need to respect the complexity and dignity of a place and people that aren’t just there to cater to your implicitly consumerist mindset. But the song on its own feels like a soothing and unexpected breeze in the summer and an evolution into an expanded songwriting style for the band whose new album party school! drops in early August. Listen to “Guardrail” on Spotify and follow moodlighting at the links below.

moodlighting on Instagram

moodlighting on Bandcamp