Song Post – Page 186 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“3,000,000 Years” by Peter Kleinhans is a Jaunty Ditty About Collective Human Hubris

PeterKleinhans3_sm — Peter Kleinhans, photo courtesy the artist

Peter Kleinhans comments on the sweep of human history and hubris on “3,000,000 Years” with an irreverent wit. Recounting the endless ways in which our species has discovered ways to progress civilization and being in love with our own cultures with the chauvinistic delusions of exceptionalism. Whether that’s our use and misuse of science, religion, philosophy, politics, concepts of race and so on, Kleinhans playfully punctures the pomposity of the homo sapiens and our willingness to overlook history in pursuit of narrow self-interest as we rationalize the destruction of the world and each other. The upbeat, jangle pop sound of the song gives it a bit of a surreal quality but one that will probably be easier to accept by more people than some song that sounds like the trainwreck of forward momentum into doomsday that is modern human civilization and maybe, paradoxically, songs and art like this will get a few more people to think about things in their proper context and instead of despair be willing to adapt to a necessary shift in consciousness and lifestyle. Listen below and follow Kleinhans at the links following.

hyperurl.co/SomethingsNotRightPK
soundcloud.com/peterkleinhansmusic
open.spotify.com/track/11MBQvv84vBoIfkhmC4sOK?si=p-6IEk3AS5aXa-KmoAw4oA

Shivercrash Stellar’s “Lies Over Toast” Is a Jangle Post-Punk Anthem to Romantic Disillusionment

ShivercrashStellar_WakeUpDelusion_cover_sm — Shivercrash Stellar, *Wake Up Deluision* cover (cropped)

The most impressive thing about Shivercrash Stellar’s single “Lies Over Toast” is that so much sound and so many dynamics are packed into a single song without any of it stumbling over the rest or crowding out the the other elements. Even when the song sweeps into densely sonic passages of great momentum there’s a great use of space with instruments swirling together in the mix around the vocals. Obvious comparisons of the latter to Paul Banks and Isaac Brock in being focused but with a tiny bit of quaver with the force of emotion could be made and a storytelling style and cadence. But there’s a bit more jangle and maybe the influence of proto-alternative rock bands like Game Theory, Let’s Active and REM. But, if you give the group’s new album Wake Up Delusion a further listen, with synths and maybe someone in the band really took to The Strokes’ This Is It in his or her youthful musical development. Whatever the exact ingredients “Lies Over Toast” takes us on a dynamic and sometimes brooding journey about becoming disabused of romantic notions about those we dare to love. Listen below and follow the Shivercrash Stellar further at the link following.

shivercrashstellar.bandcamp.com

Asian She’s Video for “Competitive Mourning” is a Revenge-Themed Horror Thriller In Miniature

Asian She’s video for “Competitive Mourning” has a visual style and thematic elements akin to something dreamed up by Darren Aronofsky or Jordan Peele and a short, dark, revenge-themed horror thriller. Musically the song is a series of descending progressions that switch to minor chords that give the overall mood a sinister quality even though the main guitar melody is jangle-y and bright and is essentially about the kind of performative online behavior engendered by the social media age even when it comes to matters that seem like they should be private. The members of Asian She include Thomas Froggett of She Wants Revenge, frontman Noah Lebenzon and former Peal Jam drummer Dave Krusen and the amalgam of that, if “Competitive Mourning” is any example, is a bit like a cross between Tom Petty and Cursive. The single comes from the group’s forthcoming EP, Kiss Under Kareem, due out in July through L.A. Hall of Records. Follow the group at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/3xUroJ9phAHftA25QDMv86
lahallofrecords.bandcamp.com/track/competitive-mourning
facebook.com/AsianShe

Grain Thief’s “Irish Rose” is a Psych Folk and Country Earworm of Affectionate Regret

GrainThief1_cropped — Grain Thief, photo courtesy the artists

Overtly, Grain Thief’s “Irish Rose” (from it’s album Stardust Lodge) is a song looking fondly back at a relationship that failed. With bittersweet affection Patrick Mulroy intones in warm regret, yet lacking all rancor, about about the good times before they came to an end with a song that is reminiscent of Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the County.” Except that “Irish Rose” is impressionistic rather than a story. But the masterful musicianship and songwriting is comparable with fiddles, mandolin and guitars working together to weave an exquisitely intricate melody and framing for Mulroy’s wistful reverie. Bridging styles from country, bluegrass and psychedelic folk, “Irish Rose” and its attention to sonic detail is an ear worm beginning to end. Listen to the song below as well as the rest of Stardust Lodge and follow Grain Thief at the Instagram link following.

instagram.com/grainthief

“Weightless Dreams” by Domus is the Sound of an Inspiring and Forward Thinking Future

Domus_0019 — Domus, photo by Max Kjellberg

“Weightless Dreams” by Domus is like music for a video game about exploring the ruins of the home world of a benevolent galaxies-spanning civilization that left behind technologies that welcome and reward curiosity and productive engagement with the world. A sense of wonder imbues its almost 8-bit, Metroid-esque minus a sense of foreboding, soundscape. You can almost see the moving sculptures in Rube Goldberg device fashion on a faraway planet as you float from place to place powered by gentle force fields. If Buckminster Fuller had tried his hand at science fiction this would be the soundtrack, one that dares to imagine an inspiring and forward thinking future—an anti-dystopia. Listen below and look forward to the album from the Stockholm-based duo out soon.

open.spotify.com/artist/7LPfsCldn6uvdPsljQkTw5
facebook.com/domussthlm

The Lates Laces Single “moved” Sweeps You Up in its Moody Wave of Emotion

Laces1_sm — LACES, photo courtesy the artist

When she was a teenager Jessica Vaughn caught the attention of a mainstream public as Charlotte Sometimes before retiring the name in favor of a new project moniker LACES in 2014. Her latest single “moved” is a dusky pop song about the complex nature of love driven by Vaughn’s smoldering, passionate vocals reminiscent at times of Martha Davis of The Motels. Vaughn is adept at giving voice to self doubt and doubts about the motivation of the loved one and how undeniable feelings of deep affection and love and connection can sweep aside the way we intellectualize and dissect our relationships often to their detriment. There is an enthralling depth of emotion that runs through the song that carries the listener away as well. The slow wave of feeling and the refreshingly real and poetic lyrics re-establish LACES as a pop project that spares us platitudes and delivers more than a few moments of beautifully expressed honesty. Listen below and follow LACES at the links following.

soundcloud.com/iamlaces
open.spotify.com/artist/6yMmGdc524t6LunXvGeffb
youtube.com/headbtchmusic
twitter.com/headbtchmusic
facebook.com/headbtchmusic
instagram.com/headbtchmusic

TROVA’s Tranquil “Silver” is the Perfect Track to Kick Off a Peaceful Summer

Trova1_crop — TROVA, photo courtesy the artist

TROVA “Silver” is the first release of his “Elements” concept recordings. And its minimalist, arpeggiated synth melodies repeating through and swimming in layers of drones flowing drones conveys a sense of underwater movement. One imagines whales and dolphins dancing to this in their elegant movements in the deep South Pacific where humans rarely venture to interrupt their way of life. The feeling of tranquility the song conveys is nearly irresistible as its dynamic arcs are long but never tedious. It’s an ambient track but one that is more on the end of beatless deep house and library music. Whatever TROVA’s true inspirations or process behind producing the song it expresses the feeling of endless early summer days in a now impossibly temperate climate with time to let the demands of everyday life untangle. Listen below and follow TROVA at the links provided.

music.apple.com/us/artist/trova/59287114
soundcloud.com/user-487741800
open.spotify.com/artist/5pOnm9kSmgcipVGbvyVknv
twitter.com/TROVAOfficial
facebook.com/TROVA.Ambient
instagram.com/trova.official

Lucius and The Silver Lake Chorus Evoke a Freshness of Spirit With the Dreamlike and Melancholy “Not Not”

The Silver Lake Chorus is no stranger to taking songs written for it by indie musicians (for example, Sia, Tegan and Sara and Bon Iver), and “Not Not” is a collaboration with the band Lucius in partnership with Van Dyke Parks (who is and should be known widely beyond his work with The Beach Boys) and producer Luke Top (of Fool’s Gold fame). The song with the impressive vocal harmonies and minimal instrumentation have the lightness and freshness suggested in the music video. And contained with it a clandestine melancholy represented by the dreamlike and surreal aspect of the visuals which seems somewhere between late-80s David Lynch, Heathers and a Los Angeles edition of Portlandia. Transcending such comparisons, The Silver Lake Chorus’ exquisite vocals shine on their own which the low key musical accompaniment highlights and accents with a masterful touch. Follow the group at the links below.

www.facebook.com/TheSilverLakeChorus

twitter.com/TSLChorus

www.instagram.com/tslchorus

www.thesilverlakechorus.com

Ashley Zarah’s “AWAKE” is a Cross-Cultural Pop Glimpse of a Better Tomorrow

AshleyZarah1_crop — Ashley Zarah, photo courtesy the artist

With “AWAKE,” Ashley Zarah has perfectly synthesized Western pop songcraft with traditional Iranian music and other cultural musical styles. Her vocal cadence is partly based on Iranian cha-cha which gives it a fluidity and flexibility in compound time that also gives it that entrancingly hypnotic quality. The broad arrange of instrumentation in the percussion and stringed instruments goes beyond giving the song an exotic edge as they are fully integrated into the songwriting and in the modern era when pop artists are pulling from so many sources through samples and working cross genre and cross method one would assume that there would be more cross-pollination of influence the way African rhythms and sounds were adopted even more directly by American and European artists in the 70s and the 80s. Sure, Eddie Vedder and Massive Attack worked with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the first international star of qawwali, on some brilliant pieces and “world music” may have been very much a thing for nearly four decades, but in Zarah’s songwriting you hear a sound of the future where all cultures can coexist and peacefully influence each other in a manner fruitful and edifying. As an advocate for mental health awareness, suicide prevention and gender and cultural representation, Ashley Zarah imbues her music with those perspectives as well. Watch the video and follow Zarah at the links below.

itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ashley-zarah/1187718176
soundcloud.com/ashleyzarahmusic
open.spotify.com/artist/7zx2lEBvJVxPcD4INOgloz
youtu.be/zHF5nb_Cc8U
twitter.com/ashzarah
instagram.com/ashzarah

JAF 34’s Video For “Now” is a Powerful Commentary on Our Over-Mediated Age

JAF341_crop — JAF 34, image courtesy the artist (cropped)

Episodic, segmented, mediated, captured, documented, stored away, surface level memory, endless variety, life connected.referenced to popular culture artifacts, organic and meaningful choices channeled into a product delivered to us by phone. That’s the world, the modern world in which we too often find ourselves. Musically the track is brilliantly peppered with sonic fragments to reflect this flow of information that bombards us all day but in the background of the background is the reminder that we have a voice and an existence that transcends the ways in which we’ve been taught and taught ourselves to interact with the world and other humans. When the static and samples fade out into minimal strings and hushed vocals talking about stopping and observing the world as it is instead of through a screen, JAF 34 seems to have reached an authentic human place in the song and how crucial it is to be there and be present whenever we can. Watch below and follow JAF 34’s further musical and multi-media adventures at the link provided.

jaf34.com