New Music – Page 52 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E42: The Old Ceremony

The Old Ceremony, photo by Michael Benson

The Old Ceremony formed in 2004 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina fronted by Django Haskins. From the outset the band was conceived of as a group that could realize more orchestral pop arrangements. The latter style served well the literary leanings of the songwriting and pop noir sound lending the music a great range of dramatic and dynamic expression. Borrowing its name from the 1975 Leonard Cohen album New Skin for the Old Ceremony the band has released seven full-length albums including its latest Earthbound (available October 17, 2024 on streaming, for digital download and limited edition CD and vinyl). The story is that Haskins wrote some 115 songs during the pandemic and eleven of those made it onto the album. But each of those songs is a rich story in itself and worth exploring on their own with sly cultural references including name checking would-be Andy Warhol assassin Valerie Solanas. Its a sonically diverse set of cinematic pop songs that it’s clear underwent a good degree of development and set together with other songs that as a whole create a sense of a world that’s gone and missed and coming to terms with the world in which we currently find ourselves and moving through the next set of life challenges reminiscent of what we’ve seen before.

Listen to our interview with Django Haskins on Bandcamp and follow The Old Ceremony at the links below.

theoldceremony.com

The Old Ceremony on Instagram

Office Hours’ Clashing and Chaotic Noise Rock Single “No Quiero Votar” is a Raw Rejection of the Nihilism of Meaningless Choices

Office Hours, photo courtesy the artists

The clashing sounds, raw noise and chaos of “No Quiero Votar” by Office Hours gives way to wilder swings and jarring passages of guitar music with a hint of what might be described as atonal melody as the song rushes headlong to its conclusion. A fitting structure and arrangement for a song whose title in English means “I Don’t Want to Vote.” It sounds like a rejection of the illusion of choice when there are none that are particularly great in a political system geared toward giving the elites everything they want and the pandering pantomime of identity politics and fear mongering to an uneducated public that is largely apolitical but convinced of the validity of its opinions. The powers that be favor nihilism and de facto compliance from a citizenry that seems easily placated but for those that genuinely care about consequences and trying to live a life in a relatively sane and stable human community it just seems like a perverse and cynical set of choices so how to react initially except to maybe write a crazy song with a weary lyric expressing a simple denouncement of empty rhetoric. Listen to “No Quiero Votar” on Spotify and follow Office Hours at the links provided.

Office Hours on Facebook

Office Hours on Instagram

Bad Flamingo’s Darkly Dreamy “The Devil Knows” is a Gritty and Shimmery Murder Ballad of a Love Gone Wrong

Bad Flamingo, photo courtesy the artists

Bad Flamingo waxes slightly more folk on “The Devil Knows” with a touch of banjo and/or mandolin more prominently in the mix intermingling seamlessly with guitar. The kind of percussion established sounds like the kind of thing a performer will effect by knocking on their guitar and a tambourine on a foot. But there are some nice touches of production with a dramatic, swelling drone here and there and in the background as well as electric guitar shimmer and buzz. The themes are a new spin on a tale of personal darkness and struggling with self-redemption and the acceptance and even romanticizing of one’s lurid past and anti-social impulses. With this song we hear hints of actual skullduggery rather than merely misdeeds in the pursuit of fun or at the fantasy of violating the sixth commandment. Bad Flamingo’s songwriting and musicianship with the tactile quality of fretting the guitar lends the whole song a grounded quality so that it’s cinematic, dreamlike mood has an intimacy and immediacy that makes its story not sound so sinister. Listen to “The Devil Knows” on Spotify and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.

badflamingomusic.com

Bad Flamingo on Facebook

Bad Flamingo on Instagram

Bad Flamingo on YouTube

Running Man Gives Voice to Modern Existential Weariness and Anxiety in the Caustic Proto-punk Flavor of “One Wrong Move”

Current Dead Kennedys singer Skip Greer has a new project called Running Man and its single “One Wrong Move” sounds like that desperate and caustic early punk era of the mid-to-late 70s but with a Midwest vibe. The edgy guitar and melody immediately resonates with Dead Boys’ 1977 classic “Sonic Reducer.” But this song is about the current era of society and civilization on edge and seemingly about trying to hold it together with so much seemingly at stake in one’s personal life and as a species and the lines “One wrong move and it’s game over” and “It’s been going on far too long” sum up the unfortunate combination of existential weariness and anxiety that permeates the world today. Listen to “One Wrong Move” on Spotify and follow Running Man at the links below. The band’s self-titled debut released November 15, 2024 on vinyl including limited edition pink, CD, streaming and for digital download.

Running Man on Instagram

Running Man on YouTube

Icarus Phoenix’s Indiepop Single “Homeostasis” is Like an Epigram About Maintaining a Balanced Psychological Orientation

Icarus Phoenix, photo courtesy the artists

“Homeostasis” by Icarus Phoenix sounds like a finely crafted indiepop song in a classic mode with some nice changes and lilting flute and chime to accent the paces. In its two minutes seven seconds the song is incredibly economical in its songwriting in creating an uplifting mood with lyrics that are like a Zen epigram reflecting the title but relating it to modern life and how the demands of modern life can tilt you off balance from maintaining an internal and healthy mental balance. The opening line “I don’t trust happiness it always fades. A way to exacerbate nostalgia parading” is truly poetic in expressing how our expectations as we’ve been conditioned by society and culture can take us out of the moment and to not live in it. The rest of the song builds upon this concept of eschewing desires and staying focused on what’s important like the creation of art because it comes from within rather than an imposed and conditioned desire that can never be fully satisfied. Maybe it’s a commentary on capitalist culture and its push to turn us into constant consumers part of a paradigm of consumption and expansion of control with no purpose but to perpetuate the same cycle like a cancer. The song seems to suggest that simply writing a solid pop song or other creative work is satisfying on its own without it needing to serve a drive to overpower anything because it has its inherent appeal and need not have a purely utilitarian value in an economic model. Whatever the song is aimed at saying it is perfectly enjoyable as an expertly executed pop song about more than just the usual tropes and those aren’t common enough. Listen to “Homeostasis” on Spotify and follow Icarus Phoenix at the links below.

Icarus Phoenix on Instagram

Telos Tapes on Bandcamp

Icarus Phoenix on YouTube

Joona Vainionkulma’s Downtempo Ambient Song “Moon Garden” is a Cinematic Swim Through Conflicted Feelings to a Satisfying Resolution

The clarity of tone that Joona Vainionkulma employs in the beginning of “Moon Garden” makes the most of a bubbling minimalist synth tone by suggesting something more exciting over the horizon. When the percussion kicks in and the strains of piano the composition takes on a cinematic aspect like something from a more hopeful Alex Garland film. It transitions from minimal synth to a lush orchestral sound that recalls the soundtrack work of both Giorgio Moroder and John Murphy for the pure evocative impact of the way the music swells and switches to a stark spaciousness on a dime without it seeming sudden. Like swimming in fast moving waters into a those more tranquil for precious moments then back into the stream. The song is at once melancholic and hopeful and leaves you with a sense of resolution. Listen to “Moon Garden” on YouTube and follow Joona Vainionkulma on Spotify.

“Carry On” Finds UK Dream Pop Duo CATBEAR in a More Darkwave Mode Reflecting on the Need to Sustain Ourselves Through Challenging Times

“Carry On” finds UK-based dream pop band CATBEAR in a more darkwave mode. The brooding bass line and icy synth establish a more somber mood and the vocals this time seem even more introspective. The lyrics seem to catalog all the things we’ve done to struggle through times and situations in life and in the world with no seeming end to a need to restart, retool, re-strategize, re-imagine ourselves, our situations and our ability to keep going on. Thus the title of the song. Sometimes it feels like you can only tell yourself that sort of thing to keep from falling completely into despair when challenges and setbacks just keep falling into your path and our collective journey as a species. But the glimmer of melody that flashes into the song hints at moments when something a little more than the usual breaks through what could be a gloomy present and the strong rhythms of the song like a fortifying internal momentum to hang onto. Listen to “Carry On” on Spotify and follow CATBEAR at the links below.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E41: In These Trees

In These Trees (Binnie Klein), photo courtesy the artist

The Quiver is the debut album of In These Trees & Tartie. A collaborative effort between two women who live in nearly opposite ends of the world (Hamden, Connecticut, USA and Melbourne, Australia respectively) the album is the product of a chance encounter between Binnie Klein and Tartie when the former chose the latter’s song “Winter’s Girl” to play on her WPKN radio show from the bevy of submissions she received each week. Something about the song struck Klein, its passion and authenticity, and Klein asked Tartie about putting a melody to one of her poems. Klein had been writing poetry for years and had been told they might make good song lyrics and something seemed to make sense resulting in exchanging ideas and Tartie lending her vocals to the project with contributions from Jeff Pevar, John Andrews and Jerry Marotta with production by David Baron. The Quiver, which released March 19, 2024 for digital download and streaming, became available on CD in September has a spacious, orchestral quality like one of those great late 80s and early 90s college radio artists like Kate Bush, 10,000 Maniacs and Tori Amos with more than a little musical sophistication and grace but lacking none of the vibrant emotional resonance.

Listen to our interview with Binnie Klein on Bandcamp and follow In These Trees at the links below.

inthesetrees.com

In These Trees on Instagram

Nappy Nina’s Cosmic Downtempop Hip-Hop Single “Groundhog Day” is a an Urgent Yet Chill Song About Not Getting Lost in Everyday Static

The restless and smooth percussion on “Groundhog Day” alongside the incandescent keyboard tones with Nappy Nina’s steady flow of lyrics creates a uniquely engaging dynamic. It sounds both soothing and chill but intense and energetic. It’s a dreamlike stream-of-conscious arrangement that is matched by the music video wherein we see the rapper working at her music playing piano with images of dragons and an apartment, distant darkened mountains like fantasy and reality mixing together befitting the lyrics. Later we see Nappy Nina flying through the air in a nimbus of fire and in a convertible driving down a cosmic freeway after appearing in a blaze of light like something out of Repo Man and all the while she seems to be taking it all in stride hinting that even though life can seem like we’re repeating experiences in our lives like the film Groundhog Day we can maintain our inherent sense of self and because of that through it and maybe, just maybe, take some moments to do what we really want to do and not get lost in the hustle and rush of everyday static. Watch the video for “Groundhog Day” on YouTube and follow Nappy Nina at the links below. Her new album Nothing Is My Favorite Thing dropped October 23, 2024.

Nappy Nina on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E40: Pulsars

Pulsars is a band from Chicago that released one album, the 1997 self-titled LP, but which has a bit of a cult following. Though the band was around from 1994-2000 with a 2009 reunion and despite playing with some of the more well known alternative bands of its era Pulsars never entered the mainstream. But its embrace of New Wave synth sounds and power pop melodies was slightly ahead of the curve of a similar fusion of early synth pop and experimental electronic music with other popular music forms that informed the music of the likes of The Faint, !!! and later MGMT. chillwave and darkwave. But Pulsars’ music is a little grittier and in moments sounds like it has more sonically in common with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Dinosaur Jr at their most poppy and upbeat. In 2024 the group’s record was released for digital download, streaming, compact disc and vinyl.

Listen to our interview with Dave Trumfio of Pulsars on Bandcamp and follow Pulsars at the links below. Trumfio some may know for the band but many more may be familiar with his production work with Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Grandaddy and American Music Club among many others at his Kingsize Soundlabs also linked below.

thepulsars.com

kingsizesoundlabs.com