Queen City Sounds and Art

Grocer’s “Pick A Way” is the Musical Embodiment of the Psychological Paralysis of Life Under Late Capitalism

It seems entirely appropriate that Grocer is in the dark dimly lit by occasional flashlight illumination focusing on parts of members of the band for the video for “Pick A Way.” In writing the song the band found a way to make start and stop dynamics work without sounding like they’re stumbling over each other while conveying a deep sense of existential stasis with a burst of guitar noise splaying out and churning back in among the other sounds while the rhythm section maintains the meditative beat. It’s like listening to a much more introspective early Preoccupations song with the willingness to take straight forward sounds and rhythms and deconstruct them mid-song while maintaining forward motion without collapsing. Which is a bit like an analog to the state of mind described in the song where maybe you’re living a life where there were expectations based on what you’ve been told implicitly by culture and maybe even aligning with the trajectory of your life until it isn’t and you’re left wondering where to focus your energies, what direction to go when there’s really nothing there for you and you have to try to figure something out in an economic, social and political world that is in disarray and turmoil and basically collapsed but not yet recognizing it and with no leaders or movements to suggest a path out of the slow moving quagmire to doomsday. It’s an unusual song yet what better music to help clarify where you might be at by expressing similar feelings with such clarity of mood? Maybe, as with many psychological states of stasis and emotional paralysis, it is best to pick some route of action in life and go with that rather than flail while the world burns. Watch the video for “Pick A Way” on YouTube, connect with Grocer at the links below and look out for the band’s forthcoming LP Numbers Game due out 5/6/22.

Grocer on Twitter

Grocer on Facebook

Grocer on Instagram

MAYSUN Evokes a Sense of Organic Breakthrough in Creative Exploraiton on “An Opening”

“An Opening” is the second to last track of MAYSUN’s 2022 album Wanderlust II. One might expect an opening to be necessary for progress to begin but in the larger context of the composer’s work and of the album in particular, a great deal of exploration in the processing of everyday sounds into musical components to create an emotional resonance with that transformation and recontextualization it is often the experiments that produce new elements that lead to new realizations and understandings that wouldn’t have manifested so readily. In aggregate this very organic mode of learning through creative work often yields new vistas and plateau’s of aesthetic that aid in progressing one’s own growth as an artist. “An Opening” sounds like a journey through a passage to a new mode of exploration founded on the most recent round of exploring pure tone and methodology as a vehicle for self-comprehension and of the expanding possibilities of one’s art. Perhaps this is the meaning of the word “wanderlust” in the title—each iteration of delving into ideas and setting ideas into motion serving as phenomenon that sparks and lures one into the realms of creative work in an eternal dynamic in which boredom is not an option or really even part of the cognitive framework. Musically it shines as much as it evokes a mood and an effervescent texture. It is energetic whereas other tracks of the album really express the melancholy and mystery of the process and of expanding one’s mind on the personal and artistic level as a unified process. Listen to “An Opening” on Soundcloud and follow MAYSUN at the links provided.

maysun.ca

MAYSUN on Instagram

MAYSUN on YouTube

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 18: Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons on Life Is So Strange

Dale Bozzio is one of the New Wave style icons of the 1980s as the lead singer of Missing Persons. Her unique singing style and compelling stage presence coupled with her daring fashion sense for an aesthetic that was a bit futuristic the way David Bowie was in the mid-70s made Bozzio a fascinating figure in popular music. Hits like “Destination Unknown,” “Words,” “Mental Hopscotch,” “Walking in L.A.” and “Windows” took the fairly experimental art rock band into the mainstream. Its members had all been a part of Frank Zappa’s band in the late 70s and brought those technical chops and conceptual creativity to the more pop-oriented Missing Persons and having hits has cemented the band as a fixture of 80s pop, as their body of work deserves, but its craft and experimentation can often be missed in the larger cultural context. Nonetheless, Spring Session M, the group’s 1982 full-length debut, has aged well from its original era but the 1984 follow-up Rhyme & Reason, dismissed as an “art” album at the time of its release, is now starting to get some appreciation for its more forward-thinking material. But by 1986 due to interpersonal dynamics the band split with some brief reunions in 2001 and 2009 before Dale Bozzio relaunched the project as an ongoing concern in 2011 with strong live shows.

In December 2021 Dale Bozzio released her rather candid and poignant memoir Life Is So Strange: Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince & Beyond. In the book Bozzio reveals to us aspects of her early life and the unorthodox ways in which she met Zappa climbing through a bathroom window at a music venue he was playing in Massachusetts as well as the ups and downs of life and her career and the extraordinary people with whom Bozzio worked and some of whom in with which she had a love affair including Prince. It’s a quick read and informed by Bozzio’s humor, warmth, personal insight with the unmistakable sensibility of someone who was and is creatively ambitious and wanted to do something with that spark that she cultivated from a young age. You can order the book directly from Bozzio on her Facebook page (linked below) which comes with a pink seven inch vinyl of “Destination Unknown” b/w “Mental Hopscotch” as remixed by Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus/Love and Rockets fame.

We had chance to speak with Bozzio by phone about some of the stories she details in the book and aspects of her life that perhaps aren’t included so hopefully you enjoy listening to the conversation and get a sample of what a sharp and, well, cool and thoughtful a person Bozzio really is. Listen to the interview on Bandcamp below. Also, catch Missing Persons on tour with that Lost 80s Live! tour running through summer 2022.

Dale Bozzio on Facebook

Aerial2k Reconstructs the Surreal and Soothing Vibe of the Myth of the Middle Class Suburb on “Max Normal”

“Max Normal” by Aerial2k employs multiple layers of synth and other electronic sounds to craft a song that sounds like the soundtrack to a time lapse construction across years of a suburban neighborhood. Is the title of the song meant to be someone’s name? An opinion/observation offered. Either way one can hear the steady pace of the percussion while tones carry on as if manifesting tiny bits of the buildings and other features of the neighborhood to be while highlighting how strange yet aspirational that sort of project might be while also calling into question how “normal” it is even though such communities are held up as the epitome of “normal” both in the positive sense and in the connotation more pejorative. The track itself, though, feels meditative like taking some time out to build an ideal community one can go back to in order for relaxation away from the hustle of work life, one’s own private haven and sanctuary, which was one of the goals of early suburbs and who can blame anyone for wanting that. These days it all doesn’t mean much with the changing ways people work and drastically increasing income inequality and the complete erosion of a meaningful middle class. So in some sense this song is a sort of sonic cultural archaeology that manifests a type of utopia and the best aspects of these strange social and economic phenomena of the suburb before the world definitely took a turn for the worse thus the source of its curiously soothing aesthetic. Listen to “Max Normal” on YouTube and follow Aerial2k at the links below.

Aerial2k on Instagram

Vessels to Motherland’s “shenandora” is like a One Act Play of Sonic Dialogue Written in the Language of Machine Intelligences

Vessels to Motherland, photo courtesy the artists

Vessels to Motherland tap into a similar creative and sonic space as Art of Noise did in the 80s with a pure blend of archaic, textural sounds and modern electronic and avant-garde aesthetics. With its track “shenandora,” Vessels to Motherland created what sounds like a dialogue, a play written for cybernetic organisms in their natural mode of communication. Percussive sounds establish patterns and electronic tones weave intricate call and response dynamics that by the end of the song sounds a bit like foreboding dance music that dissolves into calm, repeating resonances that pulse with the satiation that intelligences that do not suffer the limitations of analog, organic life and its cycle of processes into which fatigue and sleep are built. Yet machines and digital existences too must update, repair and replenish in the face of the variations of stimulus to their own environment just like us humans. Vessels to Motherland brilliantly gives expression to that very concept without a single word spoken or sung in the song with a title that suggests an individual name whether of a consciousness or a place or a collective, a corporate entity, which adds yet another dimension to the level of creative work going on with the song. Listen to “shenandora” on Soundcloud, follow Vessels to Motherland at the links below and look out for the NYC-based duo’s full length album Machine Lieder set for release in 2022.

vesselstomotherland.com

Vessels to Motherland on Bandcamp

Vessels to Motherland on Facebook

Vessels to Motherland on Instagram

Vessels to Motherland on YouTube

“Like A Daydream” by Trentemøller is a Soothing Shoegaze Passage Into a Nourishing and Healing State of Mind

Trentemøller came to prominence as a gifted purveyor of imaginative electronic music but since 2007 he’s been operating with a full band in manifesting his musical vision. The single “Like A Daydream” from the recently released album Memoria (out on the artist’s own label In My Room). The title of the song is exactly the mood and tonal architecture of the song as ethereal guitar both chimes and traces the trajectory of introspective thoughts as they are cast forth from Lisbet Fritze’s sublime vocals. There is a measured dynamic to the song that also allows for the deeply atmospheric guitar and synths to bloom like a rapid sunrise and flooding the soundscape with an uplifting energy that takes one from the melancholic mood that perhaps spawned the song to an emotional space out of the psychological shadows from which personal truths brew before ready to be brought to light and shared despite what some might think of as their imperfection. The image and concept of the daydream works well here because it’s one of the few times in life when you can be conscious and let your imagination and authentic self merge in ways that are nourishing and healing to the mind. Fans of Slowdive and Lush are encouraged to dive deep into the artist’s catalog and Memoria in particular. Watch the gorgeous and evocative music video for “Like A Daydream” on YouTube and follow Trentemøller at the links below.

Trentemøller on Apple Music

trentemoller.com

Trentemøller on Bandcamp

Trentemøller on Facebook

Trentemøller on Instagram

Wikka Encourages Society’s Unjustly Persecuted to Come out and Let Their Freak Flag Fly on “Creature Feature”

Wikka subversively plays upon the horror movie trope of the “creature feature” for the song of the same name. Setting the tale to an organic industrial beat and a variety of electronic sounds that bring a feel of the darkly mythological and fairy tale to the song akin to the sorts of moody, dramatic music of Switchblade Symphony in its heyday in the late 90s. But Wikka’s production gives the song an intimate feel like getting a peek into private thoughts that speak well to what it’s like to feel like someone out of step with mainstream society and ostracized as such when the source of this low key ostracizing is based on just being a little different which is too often enough for certain types of people to declare you a freak, a degenerate and whatever other othering language is available. But the subject of Wikka’s song is ready to come out of its place of hiding where it’s taken some time to heal from the hurtful verbiage and treatment ready to join others who are similarly different in a public world whether accepted by cultural conservative types or not because staying out of sight and mind is just not all that fulfilling especially when what you are is not inherently destructive to others. Listen to “Creature Feature” on Spotify and follow Wikka at the links below.

Wikka on Instagram

Wikka on TikTok

Wikka on YouTube

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 17: The Royal Arctic Institute

The Royal Arctic Institute, photo courtesy the artists

The Royal Arctic Institute recently released its first release in its current five-piece edition. From Catnip To Coma was recorded and produced by James McNew of Yo La Tengo fame at the Neumann Leather Factory in Hoboken, New Jersey. The EP was released on February 4, 2022 through Alread Dead Tapes and Records. The band’s members are veterans of underground and alternative rock going back to the 1980s: drummer Lyle Hysen (Das Damen, Arthur Lee), guitarists John Leon (Roky Erickson, Summer Wardrobe, Abra Moore) and Lynn Wright (And The Wiremen, Bee And Flower, Shilpa Ray), bassist David Motamed (Das Damen, Two Dollar Guitar, Arthur Lee, Townes Van Zandt), and keyboardist Carl Baggaley (Headbrain, Gramercy Arms). Hysen and Leon formed the group in 2016 with original bassist Gerard Smith recording two albums before dissolving and reforming as a quintet in 2020 just in time for the SARS-COV-2 global pandemic. But the music was fairly different from the music for which the musicians were more well-known in years past and its mix of surf rock, intricate instrumentation and hypnotic rhythms might be compared to psychedelic rock with a cinematic feel almost like sound design written as organic music that envelops you in layers of gorgeous melodies that suggest a narrative even in its all instrumental passages.

We had the opportunity to speak with Hysen and Leon about the project and their long history in music and what lead them to the path on which they’re currently carrying on making music that’s meaningful but maybe not yet finding the large audience it deserves. Listen on Bandcamp and follow The Royal Arctic Institute at the links below and maybe even buy a cassette of the new EP from Already Dead Tapes linked below as well.

The Royal Arctic Institute on Instagram

The Royal Arctic Institute on Facebook

The Royal Arctic Institute on Twitter

The Royal Arctic Institute on Bandcamp

alreadydeadtapes.com

AJ Lambert’s Psychedelic Video For “When You’ve No Eyes” is an Imaginative Presentation of a Song About Cutting Through Our Collective Illusions

AJ Lambert isn’t exactly leaning on her lineage for her musical career as the daughter of Nancy Sinatra and granddaughter of Frank Sinatra. Not when you’re releasing a song called “When You’ve No Eyes” with a self-directed music video like something straight out of a low budget, psychedelic science fiction movie. Animated lightning strikes in the sky at the beginning and credits for the video roll like it’s the end part of a movie with aesthetics resonant with the 2017 film The Florida Project. Bubbles float through the sky, streaking bolts of fire, purple clusters of clouds, a bouncing red bit of fluid and a turning object like an interdimensional satellite floats as an observer over this human drama with no humans visible unless the remains of human civilization count along with the graffiti on walls. The song itself is a heartfelt pop Americana with Lambert’s impassioned, breathy, slightly husky vocals about the illusions people try to perpetrate on one another when dropping these pretenses are really necessary for life and indeed the world to move forward in a more valid direction that nourishes rather than evades being real and living in the here and now. Watch the video for “When You’ve No Eyes” on YouTube and connect with Lambert on Spotify.

Khazali’s “Dance on the Rain” is a Poetic Portrait of Acceptance of a Break-Up

The lush, pulsing, hazy melody of Khazali’s “Dance on the Rain” immediately takes you back to the early days of chillwave when that music was new and felt fresh and like something borrowed from a dream. But Khazali’s song has obviously learned from production methods and aesthetics that have come along since while embracing the sounds of analog synth in the mix as bright touches of a handful of notes cut through that haze and along with the staccato guitar work provide a framework within which the singer’s ghostly yet soulful vocals can drift along in an easy manner depicted in the evocative music video. It all sounds chill and introspective and it is but Khazali’s words in spare stanzas paint us the portrait of the end of the cycle of a break-up in unmistakable terms and where regret and pain has turned to acceptance but not without a touch of sadness. Watch the video for “Dance on the Rain” on YouTube and connect with Khazali on Instagram linked below.

Khazali on Instagram