Queen City Sounds and Art

Rupe’s Delicately Rendered Indiepop Song “growing up is strange” is a Nostalgic Look at the Past and an Embrace of Making New Memories to Add to What’s Been

Rupe is a 23-year-old songwriter from rural, north Louisiana and somehow on his single “growing up is strange” he perfectly articulates a sense of nostalgia and loss that people usually only really fully feel in their thirties or older. The hazy shimmer in the background is the perfect tonal backdrop to a spare guitar melody and Rupe’s introspective immediacy in his vocals. He brings to the song details of life in a rural town that translate well to the cognate from your own life of people and places that made up the social circle you took for granted at important stages in your life whether that was in your youth, your young adulthood, even middle age or older. When Rupe sings “I thought those times would last/This life just moves too fast” it just rings true and even more so these days when the social artifacts of our lives are being torn down and replaced with a corporate version of what once had more resonance and meaning because of the memories made and the social context of a time that sit fondly in your memory. And yet change we have to accept and not get stuck in the past and we hear Rupe’s own acceptance that life moves onward whether we’re emotionally ready for it or not with the closing line “And oh for once it feels right.” While it’s nice to revisit a wonderful time in our lives it’s also good to make new memories to add not replace or take away the old. The song is reminiscent of early 2000s indiepop but doesn’t sound particularly stylistically beholden to a particular artist. It just has that refreshingly earnest and intimate feel that puts a song’s hooks into your brain. Listen to “growing up is strange” on Spotify and follow Rupe at the links below.

Rupe on TikTok

Rupe on Instagram

“Moire 05” is Betts(JP)’s Deep Ambient Meditation on the Granular Details in the Patterns of the Universe

Betts(JP) layers a lightly distorted and oscillating tone over one lighter in frequency on the track “Moire 05” to suggest organic, fluid movement per the title of the song. Rather than the visual effect the sounds convey movements and resolve like ripples on the surface of a body of water. The cover art displays the image of a pool of water with the waves moving outward from a center where perhaps a solid object or a heavy drop of rain fell from a leaf. The song has a similar specific differentiation of texture and vibe that is subtle but as with the ripples in the cover image there are aspects of how the water moves from that center that create unique visual and physical impacts as the wave moves from the point of impact. It’s an ambient song but like most ambient it’s not the absolute uniformity of mood but rather the subtle changes in dynamics as the waves of sound move outward from the point of creation and as the source of the sounds modulates and the the sonic energy decays over time creating its own sonic phenomena. It’s a deeply relaxing track that seems to have come from a place of deep observation and meditation on the details of our everyday universe that can be missed as we cognitively rush toward the stimuli that catch our immediate attention. Listen to “Moire 05” on Spotify and follow Betts(JP) at the links provided.

Betts(JP) on Twitter

Betts(JP) on Instagram

betts-jp.tokyo

Bad Heather Blasts Coat Tail Riders on the Cathartically Angsty “Stay In L.A.”

Porter Chapman is apparently most well known as the live drummer for The Moth & the Flame’s 2019 tour but with his single as Bad Heather,“Stay In L.A.” from his forthcoming Sad Heather EP due out later in 2022, shows not just some inventive production on the percussion but an energetically forceful songwriting. The song has an intentionally lo-fi sound that best suits the messy emotions expressed in the song with some grit and the distorted quality of amplified feelings. There is a feeling of charged emotion borne of having to deal with a clinger on who is trying to ride your coattails to some imagined higher place but insists they’re going to be huge out of an overblown ego combined with a lack of self-faith. You know the type and it isn’t just in some music or art scene but someone who thinks they can use other people as a stepping stone to asset their own sense of self-importance. Probably most of us have witnessed this misbehavior but Chapman has given some unvarnished expression of the frustration with that social dynamic. Watch the video for “Stay In L.A.” on YouTube and follow Bad Heather at the links below.

Bad Heather on TikTok

Bad Heather on Instagram

Manpreet Kundi’s Ethereal and Gentle Pop Song “don’t wake me” Inspires Indulging the Freedom of Dreams to Feel Deeply and Beyond the Demands of Everyday Life

Manpreet Kundi, photo courtesy the artist

Manpreet Kundi’s breathy vocals on the acoustic version of “don’t wake me” seem to serve as the aesthetic style of the rest of the instrumentation on the track. The piano, the strings and even the spare percussion have a touch of reverb that convey a sense of space and an air of the dreamlike suggested by the song’s lyrics. Kundi seems to be singing about a preference for bright dreams of a life where her feelings aren’t treated with a dismissive spirit and where “no consequence, no heaviness” can bring down getting to feel a sense of hope and potential fulfillment even if just in that time before waking. The simple request of wanting not to be woken up before the dreams take their natural course is pretty understandable especially when waking life can have so many heartbreaking complications. The contemplative, wistful tone of the song has an intimate immediacy that draws the listener in with words and sentiments that draw on basic emotional needs everyone has at some point in their lives when so much of our energy and attention is demanded by jobs, by family, by friends, by the world around us and we need some time to enjoy a pure feeling of bliss separate from the emotional rat race. Listen to “don’t wake me” on Spotify and follow Manpreet Kundi at the links below.

Manpreet Kundi on Facebook

Manpreet Kundi on Instagram

Manpreet Kundi website

Ki!’s Internationalist Instrumental Psychedelic Track “Nắng Ấm” Conjures Vision of a Brighter Future

Imagine an alternate universe where the Cold War never happened and the conflicts for de-colonization went more humanely than in our actual history and Saigon was a thriving city and cultural center in the mid-70s with an active and inventive psychedelic prog scene that emerged unburdened by the pressure of internecine civil warfare. The exuberant and even celebratory instrumental music heard on Ki!’s single “Nắng Ấm” might have emerged with its lively guitar melodies and jaunty dance beats a full five decades before its 2022 release and perhaps been contemporaries with Fela Kuti and W.I.T.C.H. in an international music scene where ideas could more easily and readily influence each other for the better. It is the soundtrack of a retrofuturist vision for a much more nurturing time ahead of us. Connoisseurs of 1960s Cambodian pop and rock as well the aforementioned and Mdou Moctar will probably enjoy what Ki! is doing on this song. Listen to “Nắng Ấm” on Spotify.

Plus with Nigel Hood and Monogem Contemplate the Balance Between Integrity and Success on the Urgent Darkwave Hip-Hop Track “The End (El Final)”

Plus assembled a team of collaborators in Nige Hood and Monogem to create the dusky, urgent and moody track “The End (El Final).” The arc of pulsing synth melodies and luminous drones alongside beats that feel like the percussion equivalent of call and response frame a story of someone who struggles with the temptations of not just everyday life to put you off your hussle but also the trappings of success that can be seductive with people flattering you and pretending to be your friend all while looking for their own opportunity in crawling to the top of whatever industry you can name because there is that unnecessary competitive streak and aspect of to most important endeavors whether it needs to exist or not. The song is about maintaining a healthy sense of self and not overfeed the ego and stick to strong foundational principles. It is about the hustle of being an entrepreneur and/or an artist and the precariousness of balancing integrity and authenticity with success and maybe let a little of the latter go if it means you can be true to what you know is best. Musically the track is somewhere between commercial mainstream hip-hop in production but more experimental in the soundscaping bordering on darkwave for an effect that it sounds like something you’d hear in an epic Michael Mann crime drama even though it isn’t itself about a life in crime. Truly a song for night driving. Listen to “The End (El Final)” on Spotify and follow Plus at the links provided.

KCPK’s Brooding Deep House Track “ATOM” Brings a Sense of Transcendence to its Apocalyptic Music Video

KCPK’s short film for the song “ATOM,” as directed and produced by PANAMÆRA is a dystopian science fiction epic in its own right. The medium pace with the layers of dusky tone, narrowly accented beats, textural melodies and a sense of impending catharsis pairs well with the visions we see of a future where the human race is facing the destruction of the world and transcendence in the wake of a super nova that opens a portal to another universe or another part of the galaxy for the few that survived the conflict implied with the oranges and burnished reds of the color palette coupled with blackened imagery and a sense of the world as we knew it having been scorched by warfare and climate disaster. Visually reminiscent of a Luc Besson film or The Road (2009) the sounds seem to contrast with the imagery in its deep house soundscapes yet pairs well with the pacing and sense of the epic and a transformational climax. Watch the video for “ATOM” on YouTube and follow KCPK at the links below.

KCPK on Facebook

KCPK on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 33: Green Typewriters

Green Typewriters, photo by Tom Murphy, 2022

Green Typewriters formed in 2007 out of songwriting sessions between Gioja and Jared Lacy. The couple had met in New York when Jared was visiting a cousin and the two hit it off immediately. Gioja had grown up in Orlando, Florida and had moved away to get away from had felt like a narrow social circle with limited life choices at the time. The band named itself after an Olivia Tremor Control reference and its own songs came out of a similar love of transporting sounds and recording experiments and like OTC those songs ended up being as much pop as psychedelia. Green Typewriters became a bit of a fixture in Denver’s indie underground in the late 2000s and early 2010s before going on hiatus while Gioja attended mortuary school and Jared pursued graduate studies in philosophy and religion. Though the project has been around for fifteen years it had never had much in the way of official releases minus some burned CDs the band would give away at shows. So it’s 2022 EP The Solar Anus (named after the parodic essay by Georges Bataille) marks its first official release and on cassette with artwork by Wendy Danger York. The album was produced and engineered by long time DIY/underground musician Zach Bauer who some may know for his fine recording skills but others more so for his numerous experimental bands like the punk noise outfit Zombie Zombie, the doom metal-esque The Outer Neon, psychedelic post-punk group Wicked Phoenix and Can tribute band Future Days. Those who regularly attended shows at Rhinoceropolis may have witnessed Zach as a member of Spellcaster’s Rock and Roll Time Travel Committee. What is less known is Bauer’s gift for writing and recording artistically ambitious pop songs, a skill he brought to bear in helping Green Typewriters realize making fifteen years of songwriting into a coherent and vibrant set of songs.

Listen to our candid interview with Gioja and Jared on Bandcamp linked below. Green Typewriters will perform at Enigma Bazaar celebrating the release of The Solar Anus on Saturday, July 16, 2022 with Falcon’s Eye. To connect with the band visit it’s LinkTree for the appropriate avenues.

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 32: Oliver Holloway of Knuckle Pups

Knuckle Pups at 1010 Workshop October 18, 2021, photo by Tom Murphy

Knuckle Pups is a rock band with roots in the DIY and indie underground scene in Denver. Its music has a bit of that solid pop song craft, accessibility and a touch of the experimental infused with punk spirit. Singer and guitarist Oliver Holloway was born in and grew up in Denver and attended Jefferson County Open School as well as coming up in the Universalist Unitarian Church which gave him a foundation in pursuing his creative and intellectual interests in a supportive environment. Out if high school he became involved in the local DIY scene of house shows and spaces like Monkey Mania and Blast-O-Mat. His then band The Fainting Fansies were charged with the kind of amateur exuberance one would hope from a folk-punk band but also strong songwriting. Holloway followed that band with Henry Sugar which had a similar degree of exuberant performance but more informed by emo. Mega Gem came along shortly after that with its blend of punk and orchestral arrangements in a pop format and unlike most musical bands out of Denver at the time and now. Along the way Holloway toured the country and connected with DIY and activist communities broadly including the members of folk punk legends Defiance, Ohio and Ian Vanek of Japanther and Howardian. Hollowway still subscribes to the communitarian spirit of DIY music and culture as a core component of his approach to being in bands. Knuckle Pups is releasing its debut full-length TV Ready which combines the disparate influences of the members of the band with a unified vision of making music that is brimming with emotional authenticity, sensitively observed lyrics and strong vocal harmonies. Its eclectic aesthetic fortifies the effectiveness of the music and reflects the aforementioned punk and DIY ethos by drawing upon the collective strengths of the members of the band and embraces any perceived flaws and rough edges as part a unique creative work.

Listen to our broad ranging interview with Holloway on Bandcamp linked below. Knuckle Pups will perform at Mercury Café in celebration of the release of the album with home made CDs and t-shirts on Friday, July 15, 2022 with Jeff Cormack of South of France and Earth to Luna. To further explore the world of Knuckle Pups music and to find out about shows and to connect with the band follow the group’s LinkTree.

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 31: Ivan Nahem

Ritual Tension (Ivan Nahem center), photo from Bandcamp

Ivan Nahem’s career in music reads like a who’s who of early New York post-punk and No Wave. He was in a band called Carnival Crash with Norman Westberg before the latter joined Swans. Nahem himself performed on the Swans albums Greed and Holy Money while he was a member of industrial post-punk outfit Ritual Tension from 1983 until its dissolution in 1990. The group’s confrontational energy, tribal percussion style and noisy, caustic guitar sound and deranged-sounding vocals was akin to the likes of, naturally, Swans but also Scratch Acid and Flipper. Once Ritual Noise parted company Nahem stopped being as actively involved in making music. But In 2016 Nahem and his brother Andrew started working on remixing their early song “All Wound Up.” A year later Nahem was asked by Gregg Bielski to put spoken word vocals to his tracks and the project came to be called ex->tension. But in the end Ritual Tension reunited in 2017 and continues to this day. 2022 finds Nahem releasing a new solo album Crawling Through Grass with collaborations from Bielski, his brother Andrew, Westberg, Mark C (of Live Skull), Jon Friend (Campfire Flies), Jadwiga Taba (Nac/Hut Report) and Nahem’s wife Helen. The new album is a true fusion of post-punk, musique concrète, ambient, folk, tape collage and what might be described as New Age meditation music all born out of Nahem’s yoga practice and interest in Eastern philosophy and sounds like music made in a remote monastery dedicated to universal tranquility. For Nahem it probably seems natural and intuitive to go in that musical direction but for those more familiar with his 1980s output it’s a fascinating contrast of styles and yet both seem aimed at a catharsis and transcendent experience and attaining a deep interconnectedness with others and within oneself.

Listen to our interview with Ivan Nahem below, give a listen to Crawling Through Grass and connect with Nahem at the links provided.

onaboutnow.com

Ivan Nahem on Facebook

Ivan Nahem on Instagram

Ritual Tension on Instagram

Arguably Records on Bandcamp

Ritual Tension on Facebook

Carnival Crash on Facebook

Ritual Tension on YouTube