SubmitHub – Queen City Sounds and Art

Paula T’s Hyperpop Single “Sugar Tits” Examines the Contradictions of Preserving One’s Identity and a Yearning to Be Desired

Paula T’s second single “Sugar Tits” (following “Canary”) begins with a bit of a statement of intention in a spoken word intro. But then the song with its surreal and at times whimsical melodies is couched in a driving beat that lends it the quality of a more straightforward pop song. But the whole thing is more than a bit subversive as the singer’s lyrics explore the contradictions of wanting to be desired and adored but also not wanting to be defined by what someone else desires and what they want you to be rather than who and even what you really are as a human that is never always completely one thing or another in the grand scheme of a lifetime. And how if you’re just human with genuine feelings that you don’t’ always express in a way that fits into some kind of commodified identity you might face rejection. Nevermind how you can’t be all things to anyone and how often you’re not enough for other people in the ways they expect. It’s a short song at two minutes eleven but Paula T seems to bake a lot of commentary and personal insight into a song that is also an undeniably fun and boundary-pushing hyperpop dance song. Listen to “Sugar Tits” on Spotify and follow Paula T on Instagram.

Trio Pussit’s Live Performance of “Vermo” is a Churning and Inspired Headlong Exercise in Improvised Noise Rock Funk

Trio Pussit released its latest album NPC EXODUS LIVE via Ototomy Records on December 5, 2025. The album captures the improvisational elements of a live set recorded at Lepakkomies bar in Helsinki, Finland in summer 2025. The trio with bass, vocals, drums and guitar sounds like a mutant, noise rock-inflected and demented Primus at its most unhinged peak in the early days when that band sounded its most unpredictable. For the song “Vermo” the lyrics are essentially nonsensical having to do with a horse getting oats, laughing, running about and defecating with attendant words indicating the expected sounds. The song swerves, comes undone, goes back into direct motion, indulges in sonic side quests between all the musicians and kicks up an inspired clangor and in the end resembles not much else but fans of The Locust and Lightning Bolt as well as the aforementioned might appreciate its experiments and wild dynamics best. Listen to “Vermo on Spotify and follow Trio Pussit at the links below.

Trio Pussit on Facebook

Trio Pussit on Instagram

Trio Pussit on Ototomy Records Bandcamp

Taroug Reflects on Early Childhood Memories of Tunisia on Ambient Art Pop Single “1995”

Taroug will releases his new album Chott on March 27, 2026 via Denovali. The album’s ten tracks explore personal history and identity through blending traditional instrumentation and aesthetics and current experimental electronic music and production for a layered effect illuminating and connecting past and present. The song “1995” is a reflection on childhood memories of Tunisia. It features vocals resonating in a large, open space as percussion and rhythmic elements pulse around the poetic words. The effect is meditative, even hypnotic, and as the music unfolds densely built atmospheres give way to minimal piano melodies that seem to embody an emotional opening and forward momentum. Distorted sweeps of synth are like sandy desert winds and a sense of isolation and reflection is conveyed that is conveyed so deeply it is reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” and Brian Eno’s 2016 album The Ship. Listen to “1995” on Spotify and follow Taroug at the links below.

Taroug on Facebook

Taroug on Instagram

Taroug on Apple Music

Erik Hall’s Reimagining of Charlemagne Palestine’s “Strumming Music” Highlights Its Minimalist/Maximalist Tonal and Rhythmic Flourishes as Sonic Texture

Erik Hall released his new album Solo Three on January 23, 2026 via Western Vinyl. The record features the composer and multi-instrumentalist’s reimagining/reworking of contemporary classical pieces. Minimalist/maximalist composer Charlemagne Palestine will appear at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee in March and Hall’s version of Palestine’s 1974 solo work “Strumming Music” captures in short the energetic movement of the song and the way Palestine orchestrated the shifts in tone and counterpoint across over fifty minutes but in a mere fourteen minutes nineteen seconds. Hall includes a background harmonic drone but maintains the piano of the original and its spare but evolving arrangement like paradoxically analog iterative music so that the piece increases in brightness of pitch and density of rhythms and sonics without drifting into concessions to pop accessibility. As well, Hall preserves the tight but subtle movements within the composition and its performance while putting his own touches in the performance and production so that its essence is expressed while not merely doing a cover. Listen to “Strumming Music” on YouTube and follow Erik Hall at the links provided.

Erik Hall on Twitter

Erik Hall on Facebook

Erik Hall on Instagram

Forever Factory’s Moody Synthpop Single “Absence” is a Song About the Complexities of Romantic Devotion

Forever Factory, photo courtesy the artist

Forever Factory is set to release the EP Violence Is Everywhere But Not Here in March 2026. Ahead of that the project offers “Absence.” The subdued, melodic bass line running through the song is reminiscent of something Peter Hook was doing in the later period Joy Division and early New Order as an anchoring, yet driving presence. Alexander Zen’s dramatic vocals are the perfect vehicle for a song that seems to be expressing conflicted and complex feelings of devotion for a loved one and being willing to get through rough patches and even times when one feels hollowed out because the connection is more enduring than some temporary emotional turmoil. It also articulates an unspoken acknowledgment of one’s own passionate and sensitive nature maybe hitting some low points as well and yearning to not be discarded for feeling poignantly and deeply. Fans of the aforementioned as well as Madeleine Goldstein and Model/Actriz will appreciate what Forever Factory demonstrates with this single. Listen to “Abscence” on Spotify and follow Forever Factory on Instagram.

Goth Disco’s Driving Rhythms and Atmospheric Melodies on “Chemical Rush” Highlight Its Themes of Navigating the Perils of Club Culture

Goth Disco seems like an appropriate project name in the music heard in “Chemical Rush.” The song pairs dance beats with a distinctive and driving bass line as the prominent musical elements. A touch of guitar adds grit without overwhelming the song with the kind of ghostly atmospheric sounds that one expects out of a post-punk song and the synth harmonics in the backdrop fill out the mood more than become the focal point of the song. The song which seems to be about keeping one’s head in a milieu of club culture and its attendant extracurricular activities has a coherence and sonic focus and its unique production and composition in the realm of modern post-punk sets it apart from a lot of that music that can often feel imitative. Listen to “Chemical Rush” on Spotify and follow Goth Disco at the links provided.

Goth Disco on TikTok

Goth Disco on Instagram

Goth Disco on Bandcamp

Goth Disco on YouTube

Your Tired Friend’s Sultry Downtempo Single “Angel” Evokes a Yearning For What Brings a Colorful Spark to One’s Life

Your Tired Friend seems to have delved into some deep and dark corners of musical inspirations and of the psyche in the writing and refining of “Angel.” The song was born as an improvisation and shaped by live performances to land upon a deeply moody downtempo track about yearning for something you lost that can be idealized in your heart because of distance from how whatever and whoever it was would cause you some distress as exemplified by the line “Pull me apart like you used to.” The languid jazz guitar, the pulsing percussion and ghostly synths tracing the soulful vocal line speak to the ache for the romanticized presence the way chaos and drama can seem exciting from a distance for many people, something better than what might be perceived as the tedium of “normal” life. The music video in black and white seems to parallel what might be called the lack of color in one’s life minus what one felt like to be the spark that gave life more of a thrill. Watch the video for “Angel” on YouTube and follow Your Tired Friend at the links below.

Your Tired Friend

Poor Bambi’s Triumphant “Skyscrapers Soaring, Yet We’re Drowning” Celebrates the Inevitable Collapse of Late Capitalism

The title of Poor Bambi’s “Skyscrapers Soaring, Yet We’re Drowning” is a statement in itself. The menacing tone of the song has an element of triumph in it as well. The caustic yet melodic guitar and commanding vocals give weight to the lyrics that seem to spell out the unsustainability of an egregiously unequal economic system and society. When most people are crushed under by the prevailing order what can support the elites? It is a systemic failure waiting to happen and the song almost seems to celebrate that inevitability. Stylistically the song seems to draw some sonic inspiration from symphonic metal but channeled through a more punk sensibility for a unique post-punk sound. Listen to “Skyscrapers Soaring, Yet We’re Drowing” on YouTube and follow Norwegian rock band Poor Bambi at the links provided below. Look for the band’s debut album out February 6, 2026.

Poor Bambi on Facebook

Poor Bambi on TikTok

Poor Bambi on Instagram

Arts Fishing Club Rebels Against the Mechanization of Our Humanity on Rock and Roll Single “Some Kind of Dangerous”

Arts Fishing Club, photo courtesy the artists

“Some Kind of Dangerous” finds Arts Fishing Club in a more boogie rock mode but not in the way that feels like a retro 70s rock mode so much as embracing a visceral aspect of the band’s songwriting. It’s a song about humans now basically evolving toward becoming one with the machines that were supposed to make our lives easier but which in many ways have made them more complicated and which are marketed to us as an essential part of our identities. And in this increasingly techbro dominated economic reality with monetized everything with algorithms driving too much the alienation more than crept up on everyone. But there’s something that feels vital about being connected to one’s humanity and analog uniqueness and the song with its rough edges, emotive vocal flourishes and occasional asymmetrical structure seems to not be in line with what an AI music engine would produce. In the music video the band performs in what looks like a garage with the tools for yard work in place as a symbol to getting back to roots as a path to rebelling against being channeled into pathways that the leech the humanity out of creativity. Watch the video for “Some Kind of Dangerous” on YouTube and follow Arts Fishing Club at the links provided.

Arts Fishing Club on Facebook

Arts Fishing Club on TikTok

Arts Fishing Club on Instagram

MAKEUP Breathes Otherworldly and Fantastical Melodies Into the Ethereal Synthpop of “Finger Driver”

The swirls of ethereal harmonics and melodies in the hazy synths of MAKEUP’s “Finger Driver” pair well with a background of icy tones and a spare electronic beat. The artist’s processed vocals offer an emotional uplift in a song that could otherwise be melancholic. The mood is reminiscent of lightly fogged DIY skate parties in the late 2010s and like a soundtrack for a more hopeful indie science fiction thriller. Fans of Chromatics and Electric Youth will find some strong resonance in MAKEUP’s mastery of tone and organic yet otherworldly and fantastical melodies. Listen to “Finger Driver” on Spotify.