“Kim Gordon” is bit of a different style of song from Lisbon, Portugal’s Too Many Suns’ new album Reverie (released May 24, 2024 on the band’s own Reverie Records). Whereas a good deal of the rest of the album is in the realm of psychedelic pop, “Kim Gordon” is brash and noisy and seems to be inspired by one of those songs Kim Gordon herself would write about the life of a person struggling with personal demons and an oppressive culture that inspires what some might see as an extreme reaction to internal and external pressures but given Gordon’s delivery and emotional nuance reveals those responses as simply normal human reactions to heightened anxiety in the face of dysfunctional forces. The band ties the noisy riffs and emotional outbursts as vocals to a groove but in the end just lets the self-deconstructing song be what it tranquilly settles into. Listen to “Kim Gordon” on Spotify and follow Too Many Suns at the links provided.
Singer / Songwriter Steve Dawson, photo by Matthew Gilson
Steve Dawson is a Chicago-based songwriter who released his most recent, and sixth, solo album Ghosts on June 7 via Pravda Records on CD, LP vinyl, digital download and streaming. Though perhaps best known for his membership in alt-country band Dolly Varden, Dawson’s solo work on the new record infuses his songwriting with power pop sensibilities, fitting for ten songs that explore ideas of how the past weighs on the present and influences how we live life and understand the world around us as well as the people we’ve lost along the way whose presence lingers in our hearts whether they have passed on to the great beyond out simply out of our lives. Dawson also examines times in his life that he remembers vividly that impacted the course of his own path as a human as an artist. For instance “Leadville” which so accurately captures life in various small towns in America that it could be about some place you’ve lived and not the songwriter’s hometown in Idaho. Dawson doesn’t romanticize that time in his life even as the country rock song has a touch of nostalgia to its sound. Each song is a poignant portrait of a space and time and the people that make up where we come from, where we’ve been and to some extent guide where we’re going.
Listen to our interview with Dawson on Bandcamp and follow the songwriter and musician at the links below.
Three Lefts And A Right, photo courtesy Dan Ruprecht
Three Lefts And A Right sounds like it walked right out of The Paisley Underground on “Opened Up My Eyes” with its kaleidoscopic, jangle guitar driven psychedelia. But its raw exuberance grounds it in the present as do its words of looking forward and not getting stuck on notions of the past and the future when there is plenty in life right in front of you right now to enjoy and to act upon whether one’s life adventure or romantic possibilities that can come and go in an instant if you let them pass you by. Musically it’s also reminiscent a bit of early XTC, The Smithereens and REM but through the lens of musicians who rediscovered that music after coming up in punk. Listen to “Opened Up My Eyes” on Spotify and follow Three Lefts And A Right and band leader Dan Ruprecht at the links below.
Samuel Nicholson is about to release the Further Listening EP on July 10. The latter is a companion piece to the 2023 full-length Birthday Suit with songs that didn’t quite make the final album and others reworked to give them a distinctly different flavor. “Black Dog Funeral – Alt” takes the robust and expansive indie rock of the original with its giant hooks and boosts the low end so it has a dub-like feel but with Nicholson’s vocals standing clear in the warm yet enigmatic soundscape. Fans of Smog and Bill Callahan in general will appreciate this musical transformation and how the reverse delay gives some of the tones an otherworldly quality while the slightly blown out distortion adds a unique texture that feels wonderfully rough around the edges. It all makes the song have a more intimate feel like this was how the song hit before filters and editing were added to give it the kind of clarity one generally wants on a record released to a general public yet sometimes you prefer the raw and real deal in art. Listen to “Black Dog Funeral – Alt” on Spotify and follow Samuel Nicholson at the links below.
Gabriel Abedi’s song “Ekewo” is immediately striking with a cinematic resonance with its sonic richness and depth. It’s like music for a movie you wish existed about some kind of near future thriller drama or historical epic set in Africa. The title refers to an Ewe word that can be taken to mean “roots” in English in the sense of one’s origins and the cultural heritage that has helped to shape you and your perspectives and sensibilities. The dynamic song layers modern classical composition with the percussive and polyrhythmic textures of the Ewe music of Ghana and draws inspiration from a time in the nation’s history when the Ewe people escaped the rule of the dictator Togbe Agorkoli centuries ago. The piano melodies, the hushed but commanding vocals and the intricate yet evocative percussion conveys a sense of historical sweep and anticipation of something promising on the horizon. Listen to “Ekewo” on Spotify and follow Gabriel Abedi at the links provided.
With the breakbeats and 8-bit style synth tones sprinkled in Reykjavik Kids’ “Sanctimony” has a massive sound like a fusion of 90s electro-Britpop and 2010s indie electronic pop circa Crystal Castles and M83. Except this band with this song has a triumphant spirit even with the even keeled and clear-eyed lead vocals and the call and response harmonies. The rich tonality in the production makes the song a standout even if its subject matter seems to be about anonymous and vicious judgment that can come at you out of nowhere in great numbers in the social media environment. The song feels like a shaking off of that mood. Listen to “Sanctimony” on Spotify and follow the UK band based in Newcastle upon Tyne at the links below.
The nearly abstract pulse of downtempo melody that courses throughout alterity’s “i don’t deserve this” is like a melancholic mood that can hang over you across an entire day or days at a time. But through this murky filter glimmers of clear tones shine through like the flickering of hope when life seems to be going through a period of sustained gloom and prolonged self-examination and processing why you’re tolerating the way things are rather than making an abrupt and immediate change. But trauma can have that impact on you and you can float through longer periods than would otherwise be normal and you cling to these seemingly emotionally tangible motes of hope and joy until the dark times have passed or you have managed to gather the will to push yourself through the things you need to do to get clear of the situations that have you feeling like you’re living in a muted version of a vibrant life. The song captures that feeling that is rarely articulated well in life and in art and fans of Tim Hecker’s most beautifully nightmarish moments will find some moments of solace here too. Listen to “i don’t deserve this” on Spotify.
“less today” by plaster 0f paris sounds like a noir version of a post-punk song. It has breathy vocals and granular guitar tones that together give the song the sound of weary resignation that bears out the title some. For mood think somewhere between True Widow and A Place to Bury Strangers and that starkly vivid intensity that allows for the atmospheric melodies to take center stage in how the song emerges from a more spacious opening into swimming in the sinuous swirl of melancholic yet commanding haze. The project is a new flavor for guitarist and vocalist Tony Bevilacqua who some may know for his time in The Distillers but one that showcases his interest in crafting vivid and evocative atmospheric compositions. Listen to “less today” on Spotify and follow plaster 0f paris at the links below. The 3-song less today EP dropped May 17, 2024.
“Constructing my new world” by Squarewav sounds like the music you’d want to hear if you had to witness a visual representation of the reconstruction of your life in chapters. The sequenced, textural beats and melodic paces are uplifting and bright, hopeful even. The saturated synth tones mid-song are reminiscent of the work of Norm Chambers and his Panabrite project. Later in the song the distorted sounds of a robot construction crew welding, landing rivets and screws and assembling the shiny and tidy final project end the song on a satisfying note like getting closure on an ambitious project that is your life or at least a chapter that began in raw disarray but now feels like a place where you can move forward with confidence and integrity. Listen to “Constructing my new world” on Spotify where the rest of the Beautiful digital, construct my world EP dropped on May 3, 2024 and follow Squarewav at the links provided.
The Milk Blossoms will release its third album Open Portal on October 4, 2024 on vinyl, streaming and digital download. Open Portal is the first album to feature the band’s new lineup including Harmony Rose (vocals, ukulele, lyrics), William Overton (keys, synth), David Samuelson (electric bass) and Tyler Lindgren (drums). For the recording Zac Greenberg plays upright bass with Lindgren producing, recording, mixing and mastering the songs. Ahead of the record drop the group just released its second single “Teenager.”
The Milk Blossoms, photo courtesy the artists
“Teenager” begins with delicate textures and rhythms with ukulele and minimal percussion while Rose doesn’t reminisce so much as offers observations and thought provoking confessions with her words. The song accelerates in pace and ukulele seems to distort apace with the increasing urgency of the vocals toward the end of the song. All without losing what might be described as a vital vulnerability. Rose’s paces aren’t the standard meter of lyrics in a pop song. They seem more free verse and more intuitive in expressing the feeling and mood of the song even as she repeats the line “living like a teenager in the summer” at the end of the song after uttering the line once in the beginning. It hits like a mantra of intent, a reminder to oneself that just because you’ve gotten used to living on someone else’s schedule and according to the demands of living in the “adult” world doesn’t mean you can’t tap into what it felt like, even if naively and with the ignorance of a lack of life experience, to see the future as a place to make your fun and to dream of what to do and then do it and not be burdened by supposed practical considerations. Further if you could act without thinking overmuch about making a minor mistake or anchored by arbitrary social rules. Living like a teenager in the summer often meant for many people an open invitation to adventures and making your own fun without it having take a certain shape or be a certain way or ritualized. The lines “Glamor chandelier I’ve got a mind to escape to/what do you know about an open portal?” suggest that imagination and creativity is free to everyone who wants to escape mundane existence if they’re willing to act on it.
Growing into adulthood seems to be largely about increasing limitations that are largely arbitrary. This song appears to be an invitation, a challenge, to living outside those bounds at least once in awhile to feel alive and vital. It’s a rebel song without being try hard and thus more effective for it. Listen to “Teenager” on YouTube and follow The Milk Blossoms at the links below. Catch the band live at MCA Denver on July 19, 2024 with Dogtags, at The Skylark Lounge on August 22 with Car Microwave and mlady and at the album release show for Open Portal at the Hi-Dive on October 5 with George Cessna and Wheelchair Sports Camp.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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