SubmitHub – Page 26 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Pink Turns Blue Make a Case For Hope in Basic Human Connections on the Melancholic Post-punk Single “Can’t Do Without You”

Mic Jogwer of Pink Turns Blue, photo by D. Vorndran

Pink Turns Blue takes on an uncomfortable personal truth on “Can’t Do Without You.” The gleaming drift of guitar riffs and the steady rhythm serves its meditational quality well. The touch of melancholic atmosphere sets the mood because the song and its powerful music video outline the personal cost of taking on a world seemingly filled with struggle and tragedy and now with global fascism rising and world powers either funding or doing little to stop obvious genocides it can feel hopeless and overwhelming unless you have some foundation of hope no matter what your place is in all of this mess when you’re not the people holding the reins of power. The song suggests that so much energy expended in the struggle for what’s right without a vision to drive it to give a guiding sense of hope, despair can take over and make you think nothing has any power to change things for the better. But the song seems to come from the perspective of someone who is trying to hold on to a shred of something better that feels like there can be an impetus, a glimmer of human solidarity and caring, of love that can push back against the wave of darkness that can feel like it’s snuffing out everything good and decent. It in effect makes a case for the personal being the political and how often that tide can turn in ways with small efforts that become larger causes and movements that can turn things in a positive direction beginning with the basic component of what makes life and society so vital and that is with bonds with one another. Watch the video for “Can’t Do Without You” on YouTube and follow Pink Turns Blue at the links below. The band’s new album Black Swan released on February 28, 2025 on vinyl LP, digital download and streaming.

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Twin Court Conveys a Deep Sense of the Mystical Pastoral on Ambient Folk Gamelan Track “Iroh”

Twin Court from Ithaca, New York released its debut LP Forgotten Turns on March 1, 2025. The single “Iroh” displays the group’s seamless combination of post-rock musical ideas with the instrumentation and methods of Gamelan. The minimal lyrics “Everything blows away” repeated like a mantra is like a reminder of the impermanence of all things even those we are conditioned to think are eternal but in the course of time will be gone or transformed beyond our current recognition and sometimes this is ourselves during the course of a lifetime whether we consciously realize it or not. There is a pastoral quality of the textures, delicate, orchestrated tonality and percussion in the song reminiscent of where Phil Elverum has been with both The Microphones and especially Mount Eerie with a similar mindset in approaching the music. A freshness and spontaneity and an outlook that is keenly aware of the cycles and circles of our lives interweaving with one another akin to Black Elk’s mystic vision. The luminous “keyboard” sound in the song is in fact not electronic but the gendèr, a type of metallophone that naturally sounds otherworldly but whose resonant analog tone lends the music a calmingly mysterious resonance. Listen to “Iroh” on Spotify and follow Twin Court at the links provided.

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Avery Friedman’s “Photo Booth” is a Glittery and Entrancing Song About Daring to Coming Into Your Own

Avery Friedman, photo courtesy the artist

Avery Friedman takes us on what feels like a promising journey to wonderful and mysterious places from the beginning of “Photo Booth.” The song was written in the wake of a night out with friends as documented in part on photo booth strips, the kinds of artifacts that remind those in the pictures of that time and in this case one in which everyone involved was on an adventure of personal growth and allowing oneself to be who you are without feeling like you have to hide a part of it. There’s something healthy about being able to do that that’s good for your psyche and development as a complete human. The looped, glimmery, electronic melody that begins the song and latter joined and accented by slightly fuzzy, hazy guitar riffs that are allowed to hang and drop out at the exact right moments while Friedman’s intimate vocals exude a confidence, in both the sense of being self-assured and as quality of intimacy, in describing a night that propels one further into becoming the person you’re always meant to be. Listen to “Photo Booth” on Bandcamp and follow Avery Friedman at the links below. Her debut album New Thing releases April 18, 2025 via Audio Antihero on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Eliana Glass’s Downtempo Jazz Single “Shrine” is an Impressionistic Evocation of the Deep Places of Memory

Eliana Glass’s slightly breathy, soulful, dusky vocals on “Shrine” sound like something from another era. Like a deep jazz lounge in the 60s or 70s like Peggy Lee or Lena Horne in a particularly melancholic mood and reaching into realms of the musical avant-garde. The soft bass accents and minimal piano accompaniment lend the song an irresistible cool to complement Glass’s own as she sings about how in life we encounter people whose memory lingers with us for a variety of reasons and the ways the resonance of those experiences however extended or brief become part of the narrative of our life story like the influences that go into the writing of a work of fiction. Glass seems to choose to be enriched by these memories rather than haunted by them though “Shrine” has a deep and immersive moodiness that feels both mysterious and comforting. In the music video filmed, directed and edited by Jules Muir from a concept by Costa Colachis Glass we see the singer in granular images that look like memories feel—often hazy yet vibrant, in moments shadowy and with the analog quality of the lived experience faded and colored by one’s distance from the actual events and emotional associations. Watch the video for “Shrine” on YouTube and follow Eliana Glass at the links below. Her new album E releases on April 5 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Chris Bullinger’s Folk-Inflected Pop Song “Shine” Draws You Into Its Tale of Serendipity With Its Leisurely Charm

Chris Bullinger, photo courtesy the artist

Chris Bullinger’s husky voice serves as a nice contrast with the smoothly atmospheric melodies and gentle rhythms of “Shine.” In the video that mixes animation and pastoral settings juxtaposed with those more urban and late night we get a feel for the leisurely pace of the song and how its spare poetry and storytelling seems to be about chance connections we make if we’re not too caught up in being focused on what we’re “supposed” to be putting our energy into and just be a human open to experiences and being willing to give a little of ourselves back to the people we meet along the way in our lives as we live them without it having to be transactional or pragmatic. The song is in a folk pop vein and rather than demand too much of its listeners it invites you in with its leisurely energy and simple charm. Watch the video for “Shine” on YouTube and connect with singer and songwriter Chris Bullinger at the links below.

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Miss Torsion’s Darkwave Pop Single “Too Close To See” is an Enchanting Song About the Perils of Delusional Beliefs

Mirjam Götschy’s video treatment for Miss Torsion’s “Too Close To See” lends a playfully dark fantasy element to the song. Which seems to be the appropriate for a mood for a song in which the narrator of the song addresses a friend or loved one who seems to lack the ability to be in the present instead caught up in an endless web of their own obsessions and projections upon the world around them to their own detriment. In the video Miss Torsion takes on the guise of a type of mystical being in various incarnations and as a disembodied presence dancing on a landscape of burning hills and a lush forest as she sings to the aforementioned indulger of personal fictions to “Wake up” from these dreams that don’t serve a creative vision so much but delusions that have a negative impact on the people in their lives. The title of the song cleverly suggests the concept of being too close to one’s ideas and creations to have an objective assessment as to their validity. It’s a serious message delivered with a dramatic flair as an eccentric pop song with a Gothic darkwave flavor but one that doesn’t overshadow how it’s also the kind of song one might hear at a Goth nigh or club and draw people to the dance floor. Fans of Lene Lovich and Gitane Demone will likely appreciate the song greatly.

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Mikey Demilio Burns Through the Cloak of Dark Memories on the Exuberant Noise Punk Single “2 Dead In New Brunswick”

Mikey Demilio, photo courtesy the artist

Mikey Demilio has some nerve lending joyous energy and an exuberant delivery to “2 Dead In New Brunswick.” The contrast between that vibe and the subject matter of the song is stark. And yet it makes the topic and the story bearable. Listen closely because the noise and shimmer coursing through the melody during the choruses really do give the impression that the song is about good times but the verses where things are more spacious the story Demilio tells of drugs and tragic misadventure and how everything you cherished at a particular moment of your life can be snatched away. In the last third of the song Demilio looks back on that incident and how even if that happens to you young, maybe especially when, it can color a lot of your perspective and be a downer for who can say how long and it’s not something you just get over and forget. The raw momentum of the song is like an inversion of melancholia, a demonstration that one can still muster spirit to not stay mired in dark memories all the time and that is sometimes just what you need to get you through. Listen to “2 Dead in New Brunswick” on Spotify and follow Mikey Demilio on Instagram.

Lucille Two’s Effervescent and Psychedelic Single “Pixels” is a Concise Commentary on the Nature of Our Digital Lives

The economy of songwriting on Lucille Two’s “Pixels” is impressive from the beginning. Without cutting corners on the crafting of exquisite yet minimal layers of melody and expertly placed tones the single catches your ear with Trudy Bennett’s winsome vocals, perfect rhythmic accents, vintage Mellotron sounds and more modern drifts of synth and psychedelic vocal processing. The song is both moody and effervescent, a combination we don’t hear often enough and at just two minutes nine seconds the song is all essence and none of the fluff of an extended intro or outro that make far too many songs tiresome. Instead “Pixels” invites an instant replay. The lyrics seem to be a commentary on the unsatisfying, ephemeral, illusory nature of out lives on digital platforms but without rancor simply stating “It’s all a fantasy.” And a fantasy isn’t necessarily negative. Listen to “Pixels” on YouTube and follow the band Lucille Two at the links provided.

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RAT BATH Scorches the Foundations of Religious Fundamentalism on Spirited Punk Single “Fuck you and Fuck yur god too”

Queercore punk band RAT BATH thrillingly mince no words on the pointedly titled “Fuck you and Fuck yur god too.” The music is relentless and noisy but the vocals carry the catchy melodies and righteous words with an anthemic cadence. Rambunctious seems slightly inadequate to describe the song because it is spirited and undercuts and takes down the point of view of right wing fundamentalists of all stripes. But there is such a humorous quality to the delivery that unless you’re the subject of the song it hits as very fun and wonderfully profane the way a campy horror movie in which the horrible people get what’s coming to them in hilarious fashion hits the spot sometimes. Fans of Lunachicks and Tribe 8 will love the way RAT BATH has a no holds barred approach to the performance and its choice lyrics. Listen to “Fuck you and Fuck yur god too” on Spotify and follow Milwaukee’s RAT BATH at the links below.

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George Solonos Contemplates Moments of Existential Doubt on Ambient Jazz Single “Why Did You Put Me Here.”

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George Solonos establishes a somber mood immediately with the textures and spaciousness of “Why Did You Put Me Here.” Minimal guitar and saxophone combine to suggest deep questions and pondering, a spirit of reflection in a period of self-doubt that lingers with you rather than being easily shaken off or left behind. As the song progresses the sounds tones shift to something more hopeful for a time like getting a glimmer of hope or a flash of perspective before returning to the earlier theme. The song, one of four from the REVERIE EP (out February 14, 2025) on which the composer worked with saxophonist John Waugh, without a word spoken expresses the notion that we have to allow ourselves to feel even emotions we don’t find particularly appealing as part of the whole human experience and to get through them and learn from them rather than get stuck there or avoid those feelings because there’s plenty more to live through in the broad spectrum of psychological and emotional states we will find ourselves in across a lifetime. Listen to “Why Did You Put Me Here” on Spotify and follow George Solonos at the links below.

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