Queen City Sounds and Art

Patrick Goddard Honors the Spirit of Old Friendships and Creative Kinships on “Hollow Home”

PatrickGoddard2_crop — Patrick Goddard, photo courtesy the artist

With a little dub echo and dancehall flavor, Patrick Goddard’s “Hollow Home” is the kind of post-punk that draws on that era of punk when all the London punks were deep into Jamaican music of the 1970s and the musical ideas, sounds and rhythms mingled more than is often acknowledged much these days as an influence outside of ska punk. Goddard uses the melancholic tone or undertone of much of post-punk and reggae to write a song looking back on the past and lost friends whose ideals fueled their lives and bonded them and how when those friends pass on it leaves an emptiness in your concept of place and what you think of as home whether that’s a physical place, a community and or a web of social relationships like a creative scene in a city, across continents and around the world. Goddard’s use of horns to sound out a mournful melody, sure, places the music in the context of a style of music but also where that music fit in with the life he’s lead and the friend’s he’s had whose now absence haunts him. Listen to “Hollow Home” on Soundcloud and follow Patrick Goddard at the links below. They’re you can find out where to listen to more of the album Apparition (Lung Records) from which this single hails.

lungrecords.com/patrick-goddard
soundcloud.com/patrickgoddard
open.spotify.com/artist/0Z1GQGOKh1YiSGaPLhe0Ol
patrickgoddard.bandcamp.com/album/apparition

“1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson” is Drew Danburry’s Passionate Tribute to the Continuing Relevance of DIY Culture and Music

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Drew Danburry, April 3, 2007, house show in Boulder, CO. Photo by Tom Murphy

Drew Danburry’s new single “1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson” from his new album Pallid Boy & Spindling Girl encapsulates what’s always been appealing about the songwriter. There’s a raw earnestness to Danburry’s vocal delivery that bursts forth occasionally in moments of peak emotional intensity in the song. But he is so often able to channel that passion into offbeat vocal melodies. On this single he sings about the importance of holding on to your dreams and ideals especially at a time when those sorts of DIY touring and releasing music seem to be increasingly an artifact of the past when in fact it is essential now when corporate culture is trying to streamline every aspect of our lives into monetizable units of time, of interest even of attention and to use our very humanity as a marketing too and as product. This is indie pop in the classic mold—rough around the edges but all the more appealing because of that. It’s not challenging to the very concept of a good pop song itself but rather to the purely market driven rather than imagination and artistically driven concept of what music can be and the inherent power it has if it isn’t completely compromised and its promise of personal liberation if we can embrace a similar ethos. It doesn’t sound like punk but fifteen years into living the DIY life, Danburry sure seems like a rebel and this song reflects that and his frustration with a society that seems to be working hard to produce a bland conformity.

drewdanburry.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/album/6SDwpLnbVu1gAMO2Cx4aY8
https://www.youtube.com/user/drewdanburry

“Stationary Running” is Sketchy Lines’ Song About the Quiet Ennui of Everyday Tedium

SketchyLines1_Crop — Sketchy Lines, photo courtesy the artist

Sketchy Lines’ “Stationary Running” is like a time capsule, a diary entry, a slice of of a life with a lot of time where daily activities seem rote and stagnant with a hint at the discomfort, discontent and dissatisfaction such static holds for the narrator. The finger picking style of guitar lends itself well to what sounds like a very off the cuff and impromptu song as it provides the real energy of the song and where the action of the music takes place as the chords rove out further than the words. Although there are phrases dropped indicating that this state of affairs, of ennui, can’t be sustained with a welcoming of a break in the tedium so that maybe a chance meeting or encounter can be a catalyst for real change rather than a quiet desperation for something different to happen. Listen to “Stationary Running” below.

Jack DeMeo’s Warmly Introspective “Don’t Look Up” Makes Hitting Rock Bottom Seem Survivable

JackDeMeo1_crop — Jack DeMeo, photo courtesy the artist

Jack DeMeo has experienced that moment that strikes you like a thunderbolt and rendered temporarily breathless from the crushing weight of realizing you’ve hit one of the low ends of your life. His song “Don’t Look Up” has a great line that captures this sensation perfectly: “And you dance around the truth until it hits you in the gut/You don’t know you’re at the bottom until you start looking up.” Has anyone that’s lived sufficiently long enough and possessed of a keen self-awareness not felt that deeply? The beginning of the song is so spare with mostly DeMeo’s vocals and acoustic guitar but as the song builds synth swirls elevating the mood even as the lyrics point out how maybe you never learned the skills and capacities, psychological and social, to prevent yourself from the kind of headspace from which it seems impossible to bounce back. And yet, in the writing those words and singing them, DeMeo is more than suggesting it is possible to come back and that we must even in our darkest times. Watch the creative music video below or listen to the song on Spotify and follow DeMeo at the links provided.

https://youtu.be/PT4vu0-Hxms
soundcloud.com/jackdemeo

“Better Weather” by Nolan Garrett Encourages Us All to Break With Life Patterns That No Longer Serve Us

NolanGarrett1_sm — Nolan Garrett, photo courtesy the artist

“Better Weather” has similar vibes to mid-80s Tears for Fears in the way Nolan Garrett masterfully brings up a swelling halo of rich atmospherics to accent the chorus. What makes this song interesting is how is uses some of the songwriting methods to tap into your sense of nostalgia with the pacing and use of dowwntempo beats and moody atmospheres but the message of the song is not in fact to get hung up on the past but to break with life patterns that no longer serve you. The bright, Yamaha DX-7-esque main melody is the perfect sound to bridge the gap between past and present and moving forward as one of the classic 80s synth sounds has taken on a new life in the modern era. It’s like a symbol of self as you are the same person with the same character and quality in so many ways but you choose to put yourself in a new context rather than allow yourself to be trapped by mere habit. When Garret and the female vocals sing “That’s the old you” it’s a reminder that you can change your internal narrative and thus your life. Listen to “Better Weather” on Spotify and follow Garrett at the links below.

soundcloud.com/nolan-garrett
open.spotify.com/artist/7pt1EL2DIGAZeqgnXBXYxM
instagram.com/nolangarrett

Charcoal Burners’ “Winged Bird” is a Winning Alchemy of Dissonance and Melody

CharcoalBurners1_sm_crop — Charcoal Burners, photo courtesy the artists

Fans of Ride and Bailter Space are going to feel an immediate affinity for Charcoal Burners’ new single “Winged Bird.” The mixture of melody, channeled atmosphere and dissonance and the elastic quality of the main guitar riff give the song a similarly fuzzy and fluid dynamic that allows the vocals to comfortably float within a fiery cloud of guitar harmonics. In that way the band’s songwriting bears some comparison to Hüsker Dü balancing raw intensity and cutting noise with gorgeous melodies. Hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand, Charcoal Burners also bring to its songwriting that certain something that makes almost all music from New Zealand a little different than a similar form of music would take in say the United States or the UK. And also from other noteworthy music scenes in New Zealand like Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Though while it may be difficult to pin down how Charcoal Burners reflect what some might call the “Dunedin sound” (who wants to be pigeonholed in such ways, really?) except for maybe in some of the jangle-y guitar dynamics and the penchant for expert descending chord lines, Charcoal Burners do not eschew the tasty solo and that’s what makes this track and the band’s new album The Best Day You Could Imagine stand out. Listen to the single on YouTube and follow Charcoal Burners at the links below.

charcoalburners.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/charcoalburnersdunedin

Laurent Chambert Evokes the Soundtrack of Dreams in the Sensory Deprivation Tank on “Errance 7”

laurent-chambert-cover2_crop — Laurent Chambert “Errance 7” cover (cropped)

Composed as an environmental audio experience, “Errance 7” by French artist Laurent Chambert feels like what it must be like to sit in a sensory deprivation tank for over an hour as your mind fills in the blank of a lack of ambient sound. Maybe that’s the closest any of us living with full faculties will get to being put into suspended animation for interstellar travel on the “generation ships” of science fiction canon. The distant, traveling sound comes across as a fellow traveler in the psychosphere of a the quantum field that theoretically connects our matter and our minds with all other points in the universe through a base common frequency of energy that is the fundamental building block quanta of existence itself. “Errance” means “wander” or “wanderlust” in French, but also “mistake” or perhaps, to take some poetic license, the kind of mistake that leads to breakthrough, the kind you couldn’t plan for but turns out fortunate nonetheless. Listen to “Errance 7” on Soundcloud and follow Chambert at the Spotify link below.

open.spotify.com/artist/5FQ5cdmtqfLtE8UdCg7LLa

“As Dreams Are Made On” by Fountain Child is an IDM Garage Embodiment of a Contemplative Mood in Late Fall’s Dusk

FountainChild_AsDreamsAreMadeOn_crop — Fountain Child, “As Dreams Are Made On” cover (cropped)

“As Dreams Are Made On,” by UK based artist Fountain Child, is a rainy soundscape of downtempo beats and production with a great depth of field sound. Distant, impressionistic tones flicker through a swirling fog of melodic drone while vocals seem to announce stops along a train route in mantra-like fashion as an ethereal warble rather than coherent words, ghostly samples of a child ask why it’s so dark and offering sage observations on the nature of things as a shuffling beat carries a gentle but definite momentum. The influence of Burial, especially that artist’s epochal 2007 album Untrue, is obvious as a the flow of tone and texture echo the UK garage aesthetic including elements of ambient music in the layers of atmospherics. The song brings you along on a drift-y journey over a dusk-hued landscape in the late fall when the sun is setting early and you have time to indulge your mind’s wanderings between the priorities of your day life and plans for the evening. Listen to “As Dreams Are Made On” at Spotify and follow Fountain Child utilizing any of the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/1UifhAK78Uo7DBcS57RmxA
fountainchild.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/fountainchild
instagram.com/key_yaoshi

Mimo Celebrates Her Musical and Personal Heritage on Downtempo Jazz and Neo-Soul Track “Papa Was”

Mimo1_crop — Mimo, photo courtesy the artist

“Papa Was” finds New York City-based songwriter Mimo weaving in references to lyrics throughout the song like other artists would drop in choice sample to craft a beat. It’s a way to connect the artist to her inspirations and place herself in a musical lineage in a creative way in the classic fashion in order to create something new. There’s the obvious reference to the psychedelic soul classic by The Undisputed Truth (made famous shortly after by The Temptations) but also “Killing Me Softly With His Song” first a hit with Roberta Flack in 1973 and then The Fugees in 1996. Mimo’s own song while not a cover draws upon similar inspirations in jazz, soul and R&B without seeming to be defined purely by any of those musical forms. There is a wry sense of humor informing the attitude of the song and that’s one of its charms as it charts a story in which the songwriter is figuring out her path in life and coming back to her roots as an anchor in moving forward with confidence. “Papa Was” is the first single from Mimo’s full-length album Street Candid and you can listen to it on Spotify and follow Mimo at the links below.

mimomagri.com
soundcloud.com/mimomagri
open.spotify.com/artist/3eIJIZKEFoBYxr8A12M00k
facebook.com/mimomagri
instagram.com/mimomagri

“Joyride” is Adam Melchor’s Indie Pop Song About Acceptance of the Good That Can Come From Seemingly Bad Times

AdamMelchor2_sm — Adam Melchor, photo courtesy the artist

“Joyride” is a startlingly wise song from 24-year-old songwriter Adam Melchor. It’s such a sane yet melancholy and resignedly amused take on letting go of the things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things even though you’ve grown up assuming that losing certain things in your existence are a life-ending, or at least life-altering, disaster. In the song it’s on the surface about a stolen car but could also be about relationships splitting up, your own or those foundational to your life like those of close friends and your own parents. Musically Melchor uses horns and minimal guitar to great effect to convey the sense of loss but also that of acceptance, a musical “What are you gonna do?” Fans of Beulah and Red Pony Clock will find much to like in Melchor’s brand of indie pop for not just the choice of instruments but also the clever and thoughtful wordplay using unvarnished sentiments and honest language in a way designed to comfort without pandering. Listen to “Joyride” on Soundcloud and follow Melchor at the links below.

soundcloud.com/adammelchor
twitter.com/AdamMelchor
facebook.com/adammelchor
instagram.com/adammelchor