Queen City Sounds and Art

Variety Hour’s Electro-Post-Punk Pop Single “I’m On Fire” is the Sound of Someone Who Has Chosen to Break With a Stifling Status Quo

Variety Hour, photo courtesy the artists

“I’m On Fire” by Variety Hour sounds on the surface like a moody indie rock song with a minimal rhythm guitar riff at the beginning of the song. But as it all progresses it dawns on you that the guitar part might be looped as well as the possibly electronic or sampled drums. And then the rhythm drops out as does the guitar and the melancholic vocals drift through a soundscape of birds, insect sounds, echoing guitar plinking before the sound of a soft explosion signals the song going into its final passages and a whorling drone courses as the backdrop of the vocals and sometimes in the foreground. It doesn’t draw immediate comparisons to other artists except maybe the vibe is reminiscent of JOHN or Panchiko with the genre-blurring aspect of the latter. The lyrics follow a similar theme as the rest of the EP of needing to break free of the constraints of a mode of living that seems stifling and no longer serves you and the music for this song feels like a person the verge of making that break because the spirit to do so is already there. Listen to “I’m On Fire” on Spotify and follow Variety Hour at the links below. The band’s new EP Need a Change released on October 31, 2025.

Variety Hour on TikTok

Variety Hour on Instagram

GUMDROP Subverts the Process of Keeping Up With Beauty Standards in Late Stage Capitalism on New Wave Hyperpop Single “EYE CANDY”

GUMDROP’s winning blend of 80s New Wave and hyperpop is fully realized on the “EYE CANDY” single. Warping and lingering guitar riffs drip like the confections that serve as a central symbol in the song. The song’s lyrics are a playful and sometimes surreal exploration of keeping up with the quickly shifting beauty standards in late stage capitalism and the absurdity of the situation that wasn’t designed for actual, analog humans to successfully navigate without some psychological consequences. In the song the band subverts what those values need to be and for whom those standards need to serve. All the way the lyrics deftly talk about how arbitrary aesthetic standards can cling to your psyche and rot your mind from within if you don’t have a well-established sense of self. But when various standards permeate the ways we’re encouraged to engage with the outside world ironically through digital means it amplifies the general deleterious effect of this insidious stage of capitalism is having on us all and how we’ve come to adapt to its dictates whether we’re consciously aware of it or not. But GUMDROP identifies that pain and has some fun with subverting the interweaving, dominant paradigms. Watch the charming video for “EYE CANDY” on YouTube and follow GUMDROP at the links below. The group’s self-titled album dropped December 25, 2025.

GUMDROP on Instagram

GUMDROP on Bandcamp

Dax References Forrest Gump in the Video for “Diary Of A Trying Man” is a Vehicle for Processing Deep Heartache

The video treatment for Dax’s new single “Diary Of A Trying Man” deftly borrows the scene from the Forrest Gump as a visual reference point. And the song with its looped guitar and tasteful trap beat help to enhance a melancholic sense of loss. The song is the narrative of a man who is still haunted by memories of a love lost when meeting her at the wrong time in both of their lives. He talks about having moved on but his words speak to how he hasn’t let go of his feelings or perhaps more accurately his sense of who he was and is as tied to his ability to keep that relationship together with someone who wasn’t at the same place as him then. But when you listen further into the song it seems obvious also that the narrator hasn’t allowed himself to grow emotionally because he’s still stuck with the memory and idea of how things were supposed to be. Which is understandable when you grow up and have to move on in life, you look back and wonder how and why things went wrong with various things especially relationships that felt so vibrant and significant earlier in your life in a way that only new experiences fully can for most people. Yet move on you must and the song with its obvious sense of deep heartache at least expresses that pain and honors it instead of keeping it buried which itself is a way to process and open up your life to something better. Watch the video for “Diary of a Trying Man” including the humorous ending on YouTube and follow Canadian rapper/producer Dax at the links provided.

Dax on Instagram

Dax on Facebook

Trip Tease’s Synthwave Single “Acapulco Wave” Evokes Stylish 80s and 90s Cinema Thrillers

Trip Tease’s “Acapulco Wave” sounds like the opposite mood of winter and its bright, saturated synthwave tones are a welcome bit of musical warmth during the colder months of this writing. The upbeat piano melody and accented electronic drums brings to mind a scene from a 1980s action movie or thriller during a period of celebration or leisure between the darker and more menacing scenes. Or perhaps more accurately it is like music for a Mexican, police procedural version of Miami Vice created today but set in the 1980s and the music was the perfect companion to scenes in which our heroes are about the business of investigating. But all cinematic considerations aside it’s a fine song for the dance floor on the DJ nights catering to modern synthwave with its sensuous tones and expertly syncopated rhythms. Listen to “Acapulco Wave” on Spotify and follow Trip Tease at the links below.

Trip Tease on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E40: Corey Ledet

Corey Ledet is a zydeco musician and composer who was born in Houston, Texas but grew up around Louisiana Creole culture spending summers with relatives in Parks, Louisiana just east of Lafayette. As a kid Ledet started playing drums around age 8 or 9 playing on his grandfather’s old kit, which the latter had played when he was a drummer in Clifton Chenier’s band (Chenier was one of the pioneers of zydeco). From there Ledet was playing shows and eventually switched to playing accordion around age 12 or 13. The musical style fuses elements of blues, rock and roll, soul, R&B and Creole folk songs and its lively energy and uptempo rhythms helped to make it popular well beyond its southwest Louisiana origins. Zydeco artists entered underground and mainstream American music throughout the 80s with the popularity of artists like Rockin’ Dopsie, Terrance Simien and of course Buckwheat Zydeco. Ledet came of age during this time and over the course of three decades has established himself as one of the musical form’s most prominent practitioners twice nominated for a Grammy.

On December 23, 2025 Corey Ledet Zydeco & Black Magic released the album Live In Alaska on CD, download and streaming. It is the sixteenth record led by Ledet and a solid representation of his band’s chemistry as a performing unit. The recordings were culled from three separate performances during the Anchorage Folk Festival. The songs showcase the collective’s ability to take improvisational passages and the album includes a piece created at one of the shows: “Alaska Funk.” It’s a vibrant document of the vitality of the musical style and Ledet’s band in particular.

Listen to our interview with Corey Ledet on Bandcamp and follow the musician and songwriter at the links below.

coreyledet.com

Corey Ledet on Facebook

Corey Ledet on Instagram

Daniel Avery Brings a Moody Sonic Focus to the Remix of Woomb’s Dream Pop Downtempo Single “Powerless”

Daniel Avery’s remix of Woomb’s single “Powerless” reworks the moody, dream pop original and turns it into a dark downtempo track. The guitars echo further into the dark and Hristo Yordanov’s vocals seem to preserve a good deal of the warmth and light of the song with Gueorgui Linev’s guitar swarming and saturating the song at various points with a luminous energy. The drums also resonate with greater depth of tone and overall Avery highlights the both the low end and the mid-range with a touch on the high end so that the most distinctive lines reach forth most strongly lending what feels like a greater sonic focus to an already strong piece of music. Listen to Daniel Avery’s remix of Woomb’s “Powerless” on Spotify and follow Woomb on Instagram.

Helga Luzhnikova and Anastasia Kriazhevskaia Collaborate to Capture a Sense of Tranquility and Rest Following the Bustle of the Holiday Season on Ambient Composition “The New Year Tree Sisters”

Helga Luzhnikova and Anastasia Kriazhevskaia, photo courtesy the artists

“The New Year Tree Sisters” is a collaborative track between Helga Luzhnikova and Anastasia Kriazhevskaia, experimental electronic composers from the country of Georgia. The song sounds like it’s assembled from various percussion samples and field recordings of weather, chimes, sequenced beats and spectral synth melodies coming together as a kind of sound collage procession. Amid the layers of sound one hears distinct themes coursing through with processed drones peeking through and what sounds like processed xylophone and other tonal percussive noises keeping a loose melody aside from that provided by the synth while wordless vocals drift in to haunt the piece a little. It is intended to embody a time of the world when the holiday activity has settled down some and one has the time and space to observe and reflect upon the world as it is and how it has been. As the track progresses toward the end the sheer details of activity slows down and the distorted signal lines trail off and the ethereal harmonics ascend into the distance. It’s a unique listening experience that actually captures a sense of easing off from intense activity and having one’s attention demanded to a time of rest and tranquility. The composers intended it as a kind of “story about a shamanic journey on a magical New Year’s Eve” and truly sounds like exactly that. Listen to “The New Year Tree Sisters” on Soundcloud and follow Helga Luzhnikova on Spotify.

Sylvia Black Poetically Rejects the Advances of a Philandering Ex on Ethereal and Brooding Post-Punk Single “Long Gone Gardens”

“Long Gone Gardens” has Sylvia Black’s moody and distinct bass playing occupies front and center at the beginning of the song and grounding the ethereal sparkle of the synths and minimal guitar lines. The songwriter’s vocals are similarly strong and sultry. Altogether the song with the visual aspect of the video, shot by Zander Feischko and edited by Sylvia Black, sounds like the missing link between Siouxsie & The Banshees, early Dead Can Dance and darkwave, like a lost classic of the late 80s and early 90s. The kind of band one would hope to catch on a double bill with Q Lazzarus. Haunting and alluring the song captures the mood of someone who was neglected and abandoned by a lover who seems to want to be back in good graces long after failing to cultivate something genuine in pursuit of surface level amorous encounters. Watch the video for “Long Gone Gardens” on YouTube and follow Sylvia Black at the links below. The new album Shadowtime is out January 16, 2026.

SylviaBlackmusic.com

Stray Theories Ambient, Post-Rock Single “Catalyst” is Like the Closing Music For a Science Fiction-Themed Cosmic Horror Film

Stray Theories, photo courtesy the artist

The atmospheric drift and flow of “Catalyst” by Stray Theories is anchored by a minimalist piano line and processional drums with a hovering guitar drone that traces the outer edges of where the tones expand outward. The project incorporates a touch of discordance in the decaying harmonics while bell tones warm the melancholic mood of the piece. All distinct musical elements dissolve into the slow-modulating haze of sounds peeking through white noise like the musical analog of the end of the universe in a uniform state of entropy. The track has a sense of unease yet soothing at the same time like an acceptance of the inevitable. Think the closing sequences of a science fiction/cosmic horror film. Although the song title suggests the ending of one thing or cycle and the beginning of another. Listen to “Catalyst” on YouTube and follow Stray Theories at the links provided.

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Stray Theories on Twitter

Stray Theories on Facebook

Stray Theories on Instagram

Stray Theories on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E39: Robert Deeble

Robert Deeble is an acclaimed singer/songwriter whose lush and poetic songs have a cinematic quality that bring to his spare, core compositions a stirring, atmospheric quality. Deeble released his latest albums The Space Between Us in August 1, 2025 on vinyl, CD and digital download with the streaming debut set for February 6, 2026. The record gestated from 2020 to 2024 as an expression of and commentary on the “relational dysfunction” (per the artist’s notes on the album) of American society over the past several years even stretching further back than the administrations of the three most recent presidents but brought into more focused intensity since the COVID-19 pandemic. Deeble looks past these conflicts and finds more strength in our vulnerability and our capacity for empathy. The record is an expansion of Deeble’s songwriting without sacrificing the delicacy of feeling that has made his music noteworthy from the beginning. The album came about as a result of Deeble’s partnership with former Over the Rhine musician Ric Hordinski combining Deeble’s work with string players in his new home city of Seattle and Hordinksi’s circle of musicians in Cincinnati. In the interview we discuss among other subjects his roots in Long Beach, California, the impact of his background in psychology on his songwriting and how maybe the political and cultural divide in America might be bridged.

Listen to our interview with Robert Deeble on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below.

robertdeeble.com

Robert Deeble on Wikipedia

Robert Deeble on Instagram

Robert Deeble on Facebook

Robert Deeble on Bandcamp