New Music – Page 83 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Shelf Lives’ Electro Post-Punk Song “Off The Rails” is a Short Course on Self-Deprogramming From Consumerist Psychosis

Shelf Lives start “Off The Rails” with a repetition of the line, “No fuckin’ way man” as the song careens into a glitchy, driving song that captures the headiness of the hypnosis in being caught up in a cycle of consumerism. Succinctly, Shelf Lives with the touches of distortion on the lead vocals and the frantic pace of the song and its urgent electronic melodies incisively outlines how consumerism can tap into basic human psychology and induce compulsive behaviors and manipulate the mind’s reward and punishment system at a basic level that’s provided and marketed to us as little things that we can buy as a seeming shortcut to fulfillment when it just isn’t. The chorus of “Can’t go off the rails now ’cause you’re none in a million” encapsulates how consumerism both controls and depersonalizes in equal measure with the corrosive nature of its inherent appeal as a tool of capitalism in a social and economic system that reinforces compliance on a nearly instinctive level. Shelf Lives in creatively delineating the dynamic point to how we can deprogram ourselves in first breaking the cycle of manufactured desire. Listen to “Off The Rails” by electro post-punk band Shelf Lives on Spotify and follow the group at the links below.

Shelf Lives on TikTok

Shelf Lives on Facebook

Shelf Lives on Twitter

Shelf Lives on Instagram

&Tilly’s Video for New Age Dream Pop Single “In Circles” Transports Us to an Aquatic World of Tranquil Contemplation

&Tilly’s video for “In Circles” was shot entirely on iPhone but its color palette and textural detail looks like something that could be part of an A24 film set in parallel universe. We see a figure seeming to be floating on and in azure waters with visuals of luminous, aquatic invertebrates floating gracefully about and a shoreline of darkened trees. The music itself is elegant layers of processed piano, sublimely subtle guitar and ethereal percussive sounds and hushly melodious vocals. Perhaps even plucked violin to give it all an even more classical sensibility that lends the song a timeless aspect like something that could have come from a more pop 90s New Age alternative music realm for fans of Enya and Loreena McKennitt or newer artists like Cate Le Bon or Julia Holter. But &Tilly’s sound is also in the realm of dream pop but with more than usual mastery of sonic details masterfully orchestrated. Watch the video for “In Circles” on YouTube and follow &Tilly at the links provided.

Coworkers Exorcise the Inner Tension and Cognitive Dissonance of Striving to Thrive in Late Stage Capitalism on “Legwork”

The sense of building tension and being a the breaking point drives the first part of “Legwork” by New Orleans post-punk band Coworkers. Spiky guitar work and hypnotic repetition are the perfect framing for a song seemingly told from the perspective of a man who has tried so hard to fit in and to do what you’re supposed to do to earn acceptance by the powers that be, however low rent, and turning himself into what he thinks would garner him the recognition and rewards that in a more sane social and economic system he would have. But he knows it was all a waste of time and in the chorus there a touch of a desperate break and the emotions rage. The opening bass line and general tone of the song is reminiscent of The Fall’s “Bombast” but of course more manic and unhinged in a thrilling way. Most of us have had to go through the soulless motions of a job or social situation only to realize we’re not the special people who get all the rewards society has to offer and one of the only sane things to do is write a fun and emotionally explosive yet surreal humorous song about it. Listen to “Legwork” on Bandcamp and follow Coworkers at the links below.

Coworkers on Instagram

Laura Carbone’s “Horses” is a Pastoral Dream Pop Song About Connecting With Your Neglected Instincts For Personal Freedom and Dignity

Laura Carbone, photo by Thomas Von Der Heiden for Rockpalast in 2019

One imagines Laura Carbone doing slow turns in a desert landscape at sunset listening to “Horses.” Her more crisp vocals give way to ethereal, wordless singing like she’s matching the wind and contemplating the personal fortitude one must muster to stand up for oneself and envisioning how wild horses running free seem unconcerned with the unconcerned with arbitrary and internalized limits to their freedom. The melodies are pastoral and textural, unfurling slow and at their seeming leisure and yet they pull you into Carbone’s creative vision and ability to turn melancholic feelings into something more vivifying. Listen to “Horses” on Spotify and connect with Laura Carbone at the links provided. “Horses” will also be found on her forthcoming album The Cycle.

Laura Carbone on Facebook

Laura Carbone on Instagram

Christopher Tignor’s “Off-Centered Hearts” is a Sublime and Stirring Performance of the Possibilities of Processed Violin and Electronics

Composer Christopher Tignor has made a name for himself as an electro-acoustic violinist who as a live performer has fused the aesthetics and live performance style of acoustic instruments with computerized processing and use of pedals. His 2023 album The Art of Surrender showcases the broad spectrum of his experiments in minimalism and the subtleties of musicianship and expression available once you open up the possibilities of modifying tone in real time and pairing it with unconventional rhythms and song structure. The single “Off-Centered Hearts” has the soaring melodies one might expect but Tignor angles the long themes of the song to come together in elegant dramatic convergences with the mood of the song augmented and anchored by electronic low end and steady, finely syncopated percussion. When the violin glides seemingly along in a space of cosmic background drones near mid-song it’s a passage of sublime contemplation that segues into a short moment of atonality and directly into lightly plucked and processed violin tones and reminds one of the creative potential of an instrument most of us think we have heard taken to its sonic limits already. Listen to “Off-Centered Hearts” on YouTube and follow Tignor at the links below.

Christopher Tignor on Facebook

Christopher Tignor on Twitter

Christopher Tignor on Instagram

Bestial Mouths’ “Road of Thousand Tears” is an Orchestral Post-punk Song of Farewell to What Will Never Be Again

Bestial Mouths, photo courtesy the artist

The latest Bestial Mouths album R.O.T.T. (inmyskin) came out on August 11, 2023 via Negative Gain on digital and vinyl and, produced and mixed by Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly fame, it sounds like a new chapter for Lynette Cerezo’s songwriting. This is perhaps dramatically highlighted by the track that closes the album, “Road of Thousand Tears.” It mourns the losses of the world and of personal losses and trying to get back some of what you didn’t know you lost along the way as you make your way through the often rocky and challenging path of life. The song swims in expansive, ethereal synth melody and its processional pace is marked by electronic beats that splay in a crumbling distortion while maintaining a hypnotic cadence. In the music video Cerezo seems to be hanging out in the ruins of an old industrial town in the American West, all dry scrub and desert landscapes and the remains of buildings and railroads and of the skeletons of a once great world power. It’s like a post-apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy novel come to life and yet there’s a yearning in the mood of the song a hope for being able to reclaim what remains and make something of it whether that’s your life, your culture and/or your community, the seeds of that hope reside in the song and its slowly expansive dynamic and what initially sounds like a work of deep melancholy becomes more like the saying a goodbye to a difficult chapter of existence and working toward what must come next but not before mourning what will never be again. The song and the album has features of the darkwave and post-punk sounds of previous Bestial Mouths releases but also a way of songwriting that feels markedly different and new. Watch the video for “Road of Thousand Tears” on YouTube and follow Bestial Mouths at the links provided.

Bestial Mouths on Facebook

Bestial Mouths on Instagram

Freedom Fry Tells Us to Live Our Best Lives In This Moment Because We Can if We Just Say “YOLO”

When Freedom Fry takes us into “YOLO” it feels like we’re going on a flight with the duo somewhere. That ascending non-musical tone just has that vibe like you’re about to step onto a fast moving airplane to adventure. And the tropical percussion accents and retro synth pop melodies mixed with what might be described as summery melancholic pop. The title suggests a foolhardy sentiment of gusto but the lyrics tilt that spirit in a positive and self-affirming direction by pointing out how there is only living and the alternative and that mistakes and fear of them are unnecessarily stumbling blocks that you can get past with ease as long as you keep your focus on living the kind of life you want excepting perhaps if that means dire consequences for others but most of us don’t have to tangle with such potential quandaries and adhere to arbitrary social bounds implanted by us in our own minds to prevent us from living life as fully as we can in the moment. Listen to “YOLO” on Spotify and follow Freedom Fry at the links provided.

Freedom Fry on TikTok

Freedom Fry on Facebook

Freedom Fry on Twitter

Freedom Fry on YouTube

Freedom Fry on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E29: GUJI

GUJI’s singers, photo courtesy the artists

GUJI (咕叽) is a quartet from Shanghai comprised of three Chinese nationals Klaire (synths), Alex (bass), Stacy (drum machine) and American ex-pat Round Eye guitarist and vocalist Chacy. The group released its self-titled debut EP on August 25, 2023 via Godless American Records and is currently available on digital and in a limited edition cassette. The group’s sound may be described as charmingly lo-fi New Wave with a clear lineage to the likes of Devo and The B-52s. Keen listeners may hear the earnest and unvarnished sound of 80s indiepop in that C86 vein or like something from Flying Nun. It comes across as a mysterious musical artifact from a not clearly discernible era and that gives it all a timeless aspect that requires no specific style references to appreciate.

The EP came about during the 2020-2022 severe lockdown measures imposed on Chinese citizens in cities like Shanghai with China’s “0-Covid policy.” Klaire and Chachy shared a living space and the citizens of Shanghai were subject to daily PCR tests and groceries and other goods delivered through limited openings into everyone’s homes. With not much to do the duo wrote and recorded with equipment on hand with smart phones and even made a video for the song “Build A Friend For Me” with footage samples including bits of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 psychotronic classic The Holy Mountain. It’s a real feat of creativity in limited circumstances and resources and the kind of thing you wish you’d see more often. The EP was produced by Chachy and mixed by famed Chinese studio engineer Li Wei Yu as well as Casey Anderson. The songs are playful and upbeat and at times have some choice words critiquing the oppressive situations and policies of the home country but all in the tradition of bands like Devo, They Might Be Giants and The B-52’s making observations and statements with creativity and without aggression.

Listen to our interview with Klaire and Chachy on Bandcamp and to listen to the EP and perhaps order a tape, please visit the Godless America Records Bandcamp embedded below.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E28: Tony Cuchetti

Tony Cuchetti is a singer-songwriter based out of Minnesota who grew up playing in a family band that played malls, fairs, conventions and Vegas in the late 60s onward. For the last ten years of the band Cuchetti toured ten or eleven months of the year and garnered his chops as a performer and refined his ear for rhythm and melody. He recently released his latest album Freer Street named after the street where his grandfather lived in Detroit, Michigan. The cover bears a sepia-toned photograph of Cuchetti’s grandfather and the album filled with warm, country and folk songs is informed by the kind of storytelling tradition the songwriter learned from his family as having to have a form that would instantly engage listeners with an emotional immediacy and accessibility. The songs have an economy of composition but also have an orchestral approach to bringing together a rich array of elements that give the record a full sound but one that never seems cluttered. The album is now available on streaming and digital as well as limited run burnt orange vinyl.

Listen to our interview with Tony Cuchetti on Bandcamp and follow him at the links below. There’s a better than average chance you might be able to catch him live as Cuchetti has an active touring schedule worthy of his family legacy.

tonycuchetti.com

Tony Cuchetti on Facebook

Tony Cuchetti on Instagram

Tony Cuch etti on YouTube

Tony Cuchetti on Apple Music

Vases Helps Us to Live With the Managed Expectations When Facing the Symptoms of Modern Life on Dream Pop Single “The Softest Sigh”

Vases has experimented with style and production on every single and “The Softest Sigh” demonstrates Ty Baron’s command of lush and clear melodies with strong rhythmic lines layered together. The sparkling guitar riff is at times reminiscent of New Order’s “Age of Consent” but the song swings into deeply introspective passages that take the certainty and direct energy of that aspect of the song and transitions it into ethereal, introspective passages in the choruses. It seems to embody the subjects of the song that seem to be able the uncertainty that pervades most of human existence and so many relationships in this moment that Baron attributes to “symptoms of modern life” and when he sings that line it rings incredibly true. Rarely has existential angst and frustration sounded so gorgeously hopeful if melancholic. The summation at the end of the song “I tried to be the perfect me, I guess I’ll be alright” is a poignant statement of how many of us are expected to meet some arbitrary standard that we may never attain but settle for being satisfied with giving it an effort even if it’s not quite enough and is it worth giving your all for everything the way you’ve been told your whole life if you’re an American? Not really. And Baron expresses in this song in his way how managing your expectations and preserving your sanity is often the best that can realistically be expected of anyone. Listen to “The Softest Sigh” on Spotify and follow Vases on Instagram.