New Music – Page 21 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E13: Meatwound

Florida’s Meatwound came into being circa 2014. Threading together strands of hardcore, noise and sludge rock, Meatwound’s mutant sound is a little like what might be described as psychedelic noise power violence with caustic vocals and seething guitar work driven by almost mechanistic rhythms. The group’s new album Macho (out now on Threat Collection) reveals a band that seems to be tearing in all directions with its sharp-edged sonics and a left field sensibility in fusing heavy and aggressive music. The cover in its bright and dark pink is a send-up of the concept of “macho” and the songs are infused with a sense of humor and the absurd. With titles like “Frank Stallone,” “Obese Variants,” “Pig, Tu” and “Barking Dog As Plot Device” it’s clear that Meatwound while making music that can be taken seriously don’t take themselves too seriously as artists. Think something like Killing Joke doing a collaborative album with Napalm Death.

Listen to our interview with Meatwound vocalist Daniel Wallace on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.

meatwound.com

Meatwound on Bandcamp

Meatwound on Instagram

Meatwound on Facebook

threatcollection.com

Threat Collection on Instagram

Threat Collection on Bandcamp

Threat Collection on TikTok

Blue Bayou’s Unconventional Vocals, No Wave Jazz Melodies and Left Field Rhythms Make “Hide & Seek” an Undeniable Eccentric Bop

Imagine early James and Talking Heads infused with Bartees Strange’s more jazz-inflected moments and you’ll arrive at something resembling the charm and sonic detail of Blue Bayou’s “Hide & Seek.” The unconventional vocals are completely eccentric in their appeal as the band switches dynamics from loud to quiet in a moment before building to heady dance rhythms. It sounds like the kind of music that might have come out at another era but felt decades ahead of its time because the songwriting ideas are out of step with trends and that stylistic contrast exists here too but its sonic touchstones feel like something from another era. It’s a fascinating effect and makes the song into a bit of an ear worm. Listen to “Hide & Seek” on Spotify and follow Blue Bayou on Instagram.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E12: Knox Chandler

Knox Chandler, photo courtesy the artist

Knox Chandler made a name for himself as a musician with bands and artists like The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Cyndi Lauper. He also performed with, recorded, arranged and produced for REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Golden Palominos and others. He spent ten years living in Berlin, Germany where he developed a technique called “Soundribbons” in which iPads are used to process and manipulate guitar signals to produce uniquely evocative soundscapes often incorporating field recordings and interactive visuals for live performance. In Berlin Chandler also earned a post-graduate degree in education and served as the head of the guitar department at BIMM College. On May30, 2025 Chandler released his debut solo album The Sound. Rather than the usual type of musical album, it is a set of deep field ambient and otherwise cinematic mood music paired with a visual memoir in book form depicting his shift from urban to rural living where he currently resides in the New Haven, Connecticut area. The vividly rendered collection of images and paintings are served well by the methods Chandler used to process and craft the music and vice versa.

Listen to our interview with Knox Chandler on Bandcamp and connect with the artist at the links below.

knoxchandlermusic.com

Knox Chandler on Instagram

Knox Chandler on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E11: Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate

Jeffery Broussard grew up in a musical family in Lafayette, Louisiana. His father Delton was an accomplished musician and his mother Ethel performed a cappella juré music in the home. The younger Broussard started playing drums in Delton Broussard and the Lawtell Playboys when he was eight years old but went on to play the accordion as his main instrument in his teens. Jeffery formed his own band Zydeco Force very much informed by the music he came up playing and the group while not a touring act released seven albums between 1990 and 2004. Broussard decided to create a more musically traditional band with his next project Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys in 2005. In 2025 the musician and singer released the debut album of his new outfit Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate. Bayou Moonlight released via Fairgrounds Records May 23 on 12” vinyl, digital download and for streaming. The new record reflects Broussard’s charismatic and vital performance style with vibrant and passionate delivery that has made him a Zydeco-nouveau start with an ear for taking the traditional forms and giving it a spirited form.

Listen to our interview with Jeffery Broussard on Bandcamp and follow him at the links below.

nighttime-syndicate.band

Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate on Instagram

Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate on Bandcamp

Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate on Fairground Records

Jeffery Broussard and The Nighttime Syndicate on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E10: Charming Disaster

Charming Disaster, photo by Shervin Lainez

Charming Disaster is a Brooklyn-based duo who have developed a style that has been described as goth-folk. But Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris seem to have a knack for crafting deeply imaginative pop songs with an experimental and theatrical flair. Their latest record The Double released on May 16, 2025 on vinyl, CD and of course digital platforms. As with previous efforts the band explores concepts in its songs this time through the vehicle of songs dealing with an alternate reality where magic is a feature of life, time travel, the flora taking over civilization and a re-imagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The album deftly incorporates elements of fantasy and science fiction in telling engaging stories and of left field adventure and of struggling with depression and transforming tragedy into something more productive. Utilizing ukulele, guitar, foot percussion and beautiful vocal harmonies Charming Disaster’s dark cabaret style is the kind that transcends genre and musical era with an immediacy that instantly draws you into its unique creative vision.

Listen to our interview with Charming Disaster on Bandcamp and follow the group at the links below.

charmingdisaster.com

Charming Disaster on Facebook

Charming Disaster on Instagram

Charming Disaster on YouTube

Charming Disaster on Bandcamp (to order vinyl and get a download)

C-Will Shows How Skill, Imagination and Hustle Compliment Each Other in Both the Late Culinary and Rap Game on “Food Truck”

C-Will deftly weaves together the imagery of being a chef/operator of a food truck with being a producer and rapper. With nuanced flow that is both energetic and laid back with a soulful late night jazz moods in the beat with trap percussion and creative cuts and vocal processing to convey a range of moods and the satisfying and heady aspects of the experience of both and how they inform one another and feed the soul in complimentary ways and how both require skills in presentation and assembling the fortifying substance of each as well as sustained hustle for both to be successful. That the song has a late night, relaxed vibe makes it all the more effective in conveying how the life can be chill even as it offers challenges to stay in the game. Listen to “Food Truck” on Spotify and follow C-Will on Instagram.

Izzy Raye’s Triumphant, Anthemic Synth Pop Single “no more” is a Vibrant Evocation of the Disappoint and Anger at the Reality of Human Limitations

The pulsing, distorted synth and shuffling beats of Izzy Ray’s “no more” set an evocative backdrop to the singer and songwriter’s layered vocals. Altogether it serves well the emotional complexity and mood of a song about coming to terms with one’s own perspective and how maybe we all set ourselves up for disappointment and struggle when people are not who we want and expect them to be. But we can all come to the point where we accept people for what and who they are the way we might want for ourselves and come to people with the kind of grace that isn’t cultivated in many cultures, certain in the USA. But that grace though earned through accepting limitations and the heartbreak that comes with it. Yet it is an essential part of growing up or at least dealing with people and life on their and on its own terms and letting go of the illusion of the kind of control their our cognitive framing can give us. The song though in some ways melancholy also contains a spirit of triumph over the limited point of view that doesn’t see the whole or at least as much of the picture of other people and the world in which we all operate and to come to a place of humility at the fact that we can’t fully understand everything and everyone and that it’s often better and more loving to let go of unrealistic certainties. The song honors the disappointment and anger, often justified, when people fail us and when we fail ourselves but also the emotional breakthrough and growth that comes in the wake of that downbeat of life. Listen to “no more” on Spotify and follow Izzy Raye at the links below.

Izzy Raye on Facebook

Izzy Raye on Instagram

Nichols+Roark’s Cinematic, Techno Pop Single “CITY LIGHTS” is an Evocation of the Allure of the Night Life in the Cosmopolitan Sprawl

Nichols+Roark, photo courtesy the artists

Nichols+Roark, the London-based DJ/Producer duo, utilize captivating, saturated synth tones and measured yet urgent, techno beats in the dusky synthpop single “CITY LIGHTS.” The effect is one of a sense of melancholic contemplation. When paired with a near-future looking metropolis somewhere perhaps London or some other urban sprawl at night—in the tube, the New York subway, near the Port of London, looking out across the city and its sprawl of lights and lots of foot traffic and darkened side streets. The view wanders in all spaces while you are engulfed by the song and its strong beat like an early 2000s club hit touched by the influence of electroclash and the percussive techno dance pop of Weval. The cinematic feel of the song generates plenty imagination stirring on its own and the accompanying visuals makes one wish this could be in one of the more visually striking horror films of late like Smile 2 or a Danny Boyle vehicle so that people could hear it and wonder who wrote such an entrancing piece of music. Watch the video for “CITY LIGHTS” on YouTube and follow Nichols+Roark at the links below.

Nichols+Roark on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E08: MikelParis

MikelParis is perhaps best known these days as a keyboard player in the rock band O.A.R. but for many years he was also a cast member of the STOMP touring show as well as working with Pink, Train, The Dan Band and Jewel. All along MikelParis has developed his “GuitarDrumming” style of playing acoustic guitar. It combines his technique for playing piano, his honed sense of complex rhythms into a fluid and endlessly evolving sound that incorporates intuitive and expressive improvisation and songwriting acumen. His latest, and fourth, album GuitarDrumming 01 has the musician bringing in peers and friends like Vernon Reid (Living Colour), G. Love and Of Good Nature. The sound is richly varied and at times is reminiscent of 90s Peter Gabriel as the latter further integrated non-Western rhythms into his pop songcraft. The album released on March 28, 2025 on 12” vinyl, digital download and streaming services via ZP Records.

Listen to our interview with MikelParis on Bandcamp and follow him at mikelparis.com.

Whitney Walker’s Lively Single “An Owl Hoots Your Name At Night” is Mix of Baroque Pop and Psychedelic Jazz Calypso

Whitney Walker, photo courtesy the artist

Whitney Walker sounds like he’s spent a lot of years picking up musical ideas and inclinations before writing the music for his new EP Where To Go And How To Get There (released June 13, 2025). The sinigle “An Owl Hoots Your Name At Night” has a richly eclectic aesthetic especially considering it’s a mere two minutes thirteen seconds long. Jaunty percussion, swells of carnival-esque keyboards, calypso psychedelia and jazz pop leanings with the band coming in clutch with simple but elaborate arrangements and contributions from Dana Colley of Morphine fame turning in choice bits of clarinet and flute throughout the song. Concise yet cinematic and with a touch of Vaudeville that song has a unique appeal like something tapping into pre-modern popular music and a band like DeVotchKa. The music video is similarly colorful and wonderfully eccentric interspersing animations, collages and live performance in perfect balance. Watch the video for “An Owl Hoots Your Name At Night” on YouTube and follow Whitney Walker at the links below.