SubmitHub – Page 85 – Queen City Sounds and Art

18 Fevers Burn Down Elitist Pretensions on Punk Rock Rager “Gate Keeper”

18 Fevers bring ample punk fervor to its single “Gate Keeper” as the song calls out the nuances of gate keeping and those who seem to always put themselves in such positions of power over others. In the song there are lyrics denouncing the white savior complex which seems too relevant in so many places and even in a city like Seoul, South Korea from which the band hails. The song points out how gate keeping tends to keep a music scene or any local creative culture small because of arbitrary standards of who get to be a part of it and what is considered the genuine deal. The line “Whining about punk costumes and Kpop does not make you hardcore” is something most people can relate to who have been in or adjacent to a local or not so local punk or whatever style of music scene anywhere. The song and its raging and liberating sounds are about resistance to forces that try to define what needn’t be defined according to a checklist that was never really a part of where punk started or where it has gone but isn’t that also a critique of what is essentially an elitist and colonist mindset? Whatever the layers of meaning one can get from the song it’s a fiery takedown of the people and mindsets that try to keep things narrow and therefore boring. Listen to “Gate Keeper” on Spotify and follow 18 Fevers at the links below. The group’s latest EP Death Punk Disco released on July 13, 2023.

18 Fevers on Facebook

18 Fevers on YouTube

18 Fevers on Bandcamp

18 Fevers on Instagram

The Quiet One Finds Resilience Through Sheer Emotional Openness on Dream Pop Single “Surrender”

Sometimes songs about self-empowerment and working through tragedy with no one to fall back on but yourself can come off as tough and try hard. But “Surrender” by The Quiet One replaces sonic bravado with a sound more melancholic and soft with ethereal, shimmery melodies and fragile guitar work that lends Amber Wilson’s words and hushed vocals an emotional immediacy and accessibility that makes that inner strength seem attainable. Wilson wrote the song following the passing of her mother and the tenderness and self-patience and grace required to weather that kind of pain informs the songwriting. After all resilience and strength need not look and feel like some stoic and rigid approach to your own life. “Surrender” feels like a catharsis through sheer emotional openness and getting through by feeling it all rather than trapping any of it in a dark place in the psyche. Listen to “Surrender” on Spotify and follow the Scottish singer-songwriter at the links below.

The Quiet One on TikTok

The Quiet One on Facebook

The Quiet One on Instagram

The Delicate Psychedelia of Yard Art’s “Undertow” is an Entrancing Trail of Ghostly Melody Into the Horizon

Yard Art flow into the spidery early melodic guitar work of “Undertow” as though spinning the delicate structure of its psychedelic and shoegaze tapestry from the beginning and throughout. But the sounds expand and swirl like something one imagines one would hear if you were around at the turn of the 90s in Seattle and a new band called Sky Cries Mary, seemingly unaffected by the rising popularity of grunge, handed you one of the demo cassettes of its new direction toward a fusion of folk, psychedelic rock and a nascent other strand of alternative rock. Except that Yard Art is clearly drawing upon on more contemporaneous influences in its luminous sketches and explorations weaving in and out of a standard song structure. Fortunately the band has no problem drawing those musical ideas into hypnotic trails into the horizon and lead you to wonder what else it might have in store. Listen to “Undertow” on Spotify and follow Yard Art on Instagram.

Mainland Break Evokes Nostalgic Moods to Look to the Future on Jangle Pop Single “Portland”

Mainland Break, photo courtesy the artists

Mainland Break evoke deep feelings of nostalgia to ground you in the emotional present on “Portland.” The music video was shot on 8mm in Tijuana, Mexico and looks like an old family vacation film but one where a friend is playing a tiny guitar in numerous locations that look like they have to be from another era. The sparkling guitar melody with its dynamic jangle and steady yet breezy rhythms with warm vocals lingering on the vowels in the verses really conveys a sense of both looking back and assessing while moving toward what’s to come with a freshness of mind and enthusiasm for the here and now. Fans of later period Real Estate and Wild Nothing will find much to appreciate with this single as well as the group’s recently released full-length One Way Ticket to Midnight which dropped on digital, CD and vinyl on July 21, 2023.

Mainland Break on Facebook

Mainland Break on Instagram

Mainland Break on Bandcamp

Pain in the Yeahs Deliver Synth-Driven Post-punk Song “Message of Mercy” With a Liberating Sense of Conviction

The pounding drums and distorted synths have a very stark and moody aspect at the beginning of “Message of Mercy” by Pain in the Yeahs. It’s industrial feel is reminiscent of when Nine Inch Nails covered Joy Division. The spectral synth melody fits in with a song that is both bleakly melancholic and defiantly expansive. The sound is futuristic like the kind of music that would have emerged in Oceania after the fall of the regime that propped up the image figurehead of Big Brother—all strong rhythmic lines and uncompromising and widely emotional expression but one tempered by decades of having had to be more buttoned up than is natural meaning there is a quality to the music that seems to have come up from a time of pent up incubation of a creative project with lots of development and close attention to how the beats and production would make the music come across as emphatically intentional. Listen to “Message of Mercy” on Spotify and follow Pain in the Yeahs at the links below. The sophomore album from the Virginia-based project Deep Sigh Sci-Fi released on July 21, 2023.

Pain in the Yeahs on Bandcamp

Pain in the Yeahs on Instagram

Silver Synthetic’s Psychedelic Jangle Pop Song “The Door” Finds Exuberant New and Otherworldly Form in Oliver Ackermann’s Remix

Silver Synthetic, photo courtesy the artists

The A Place to Bury Strangers remix of “The Door” by New Orleans-based jangle/psychedelic rock band Silver Synthetic is like an alternate dimension version of the band. Along with Jessica Bizer’s visualizer for the remix one sees a brighter, more colorful world full of vivid and resonant detail. The beautiful, Byrds-esque guitar work of the original seems to have been transformed into high energy but blissed out, borderline 8-bit forms like the song reinterpreted by a video game music developer who tried to make a rendition for original Nintendo but pushing the limitations of that sound engine to the limits and even sped up the vocals a bit to match the ebullient pace of the remix. It’s almost unrecognizable except for the core melody. It’s a fascinating transformation that one wishes one could witness live but naturally this version is the product of imaginative production and reinvisioning the possibilities of the song in a way that could only really be accomplished in the box. Watch the video for “The Door (A Place to Bury Strangers Remix)” on YouTube and follow Silver Synthetic at the links below.

Silver Syntheti c on Facebook

Silver Synthetic on Bandcamp

Silver Synthetic on Instagram

Towne & Stevens’ Pastoral and Orchestral “Please Hold the Line” Captures the Unease and Exhilaration of Anticipating a Difficult Conversation

Towne & Stevens, photo courtesy the artists

Towne & Stevens is a band including Rogers Stevens and Nathan Towne of Blind Melon. Their 2023 self-titled debut is a collection of songs informed by introspective songs warm with pastoral overtones. The video for the single “Please Hold the Line” looks like something from an existential indie film starring Bill Murray but with Stevens singing into the rear view mirror looking both resigned and uneasy which fits a song seemingly about the thoughts that pass through your head when you’re on your way to meet with someone with whom you’re going to have to have a deep and potentially intense but necessary conversation because many difficult meetings with people can’t and shouldn’t be avoided but met with integrity, sensitivity and nuance. This song captures the feeling of going there not knowing how it’s going to go down. The orchestral horns and lingering guitar leads paired with minimal piano and percussion with expressive and wide-ranging vocals all come together to give the song a sense of easing the inevitable while embodying the complexity of emotions at the core of the song. Watch the video for “Please Hold the Line” on YouTube and follow Towne & Stevens at the links below.

Towne & Stevens on Facebook

Towne & Stevens on Instagram

Cold Venus Revisited’s Darkly Mysterious Video for Its Post-punk Song “Keep Breathing” is a Love Song for the Melancholic

Cold Venus Revisited, photo courtesy the artists

The video treatment for Cold Venus Revisited’s “Keep Breathing” is a resonant complement to its shivering drones and processional rhythm. Shot in black and white with an enigmatic figure standing next to a river, images of flocks of birds flying and close-up of an eye with a ripple on water superimposed over the top. In moments its reminiscent of an incredibly gloomy Mazzy Star song with even more introspective vocals and the group says it’s a “love song for very sad people.” There’s a stark beauty to the song that is framed by a moody bass line and finely and firmly accented drums that gives it a mysterious power and sense of doomed romance that sticks with you. Watch the video for “Keep Breathing” from the Prague-based post-punk band Cold Venus Revisited and follow the group at the links provided.

Cold Venus Revisited on Facebook

Cold Venus Revisited on Instagram

Cementation Anxiety Guides Us From Heavy Emotional Textures to a Bright and Gentle Catharsis on Ambient Drone Song “Departure”

Cementation Anxiety, photo courtesy the artist

“Departure” rushes into sonic frame with a flood of white noise flowing like a rapid wind. It feels like both an overwhelming saturation of emotional experiences and when that palpable, granular sound clears one hears a deep, melodic tone echoing in the distance like a beacon in the darkness more felt than seen. There is a dynamic to this song that makes one think of walking out of a space of dark, fog-enshrouded night toward something unknown but discernible like the haze of a city on the horizon. As the track progresses the quality of sound seems more luminous than simply a textural inundation of noise and in the end sonic miasma dissipates. Emotionally, Cementation Anxiety has crafted a piece that is indeed like a departure from weighty stasis and density of emotional resonances to one of restful if not soothing clarity, like a purge of the crush of painful memories hitting all at once and then being able to let them go. Listen to “Departure” on YouTube and follow Cementation Anxiety at the links below.

Cementation Anxiety on Facebook

Cementation Anxiety on Bandcamp

Cementation Anxiety on Instagram

Ringing’s “Stairwell” Takes Rhythmic Paths Less Traveled In Its Meditative, Asymmetrically Melodic Shoegaze

Ringing immediately takes us down unpredictable musical paths from the beginning of “Stairwell.” Its loping chords like a slowcore Pavement and warped dissonance give way to huge, bombastic riffing without losing the casual, slackery attitude for peak moments before sliding back into introspective sketches of song in the outro. The song constantly feels like it’s going to fall over and coupled with its vulnerable and fragile structures there’s a sustained sense of weightiness to the meditative vocal delivery and what some might consider atonal guitar riffs. It shouldn’t work and for many people it won’t if they’re put off by the aforementioned Pavement or when Dinosaur Jr heads into territory disregarding the rules of how melodies should work or the directions rhythms are supposed to go. Much less how homespun and idiosyncratic Duster often sounds and how its own lo-fi splintery atmospheres lend themselves well to the dynamic not being dependent on symmetric song structures. Listen to “Stairwell” on Spotify where you can also find he rest of the Is It Light Out Where You Are? EP which released on August 9, 2023 via Julia’s War and Candlepin Records.

Ringing on Instagram