Queen City Sounds and Art

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.

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Springworks Shows How Living Your Authentic Life is More Sustainable Than a Facade of Toxic Positivity on Jangle Pop Single “Hollow”

In its typical fashion, Springworks has paired some vintage footage with its music. But rather than industrial video and the like, the scenes for the music video for “Hollow” looks like some stuff that has fall into public domain status depicting a man who has fallen down due to psychological pressures and institutionalized but the color sections show a woman flying off to a fantastical place including a futuristic kitchen as well as attendees at a play. The music itself features some of the band’s finest production to date with guitar that is reminiscent of a later period Beat Happening song with some more unconventional percussion elements as well as minimal drums. The vocal harmonies are reminiscent of the kind of jangle pop one heard out of Flying Nun bands of the 80s and the lyrics seem to be an observant portrait of the way many people feel the need to put on a happy and confident facade so to not appear weak or lacking but can’t hide it so well. Not when someone is paying attention. Much less how maintaining that fiction when you’re not feeling can indeed hollow you out because actually feeling things gives one more emotional fortitude than glazing over one’s real feelings all the time. It’s a feature of too much of modern life and Springworks sings about it in a way that encourages being authentic without having to get stuck in the darkness. Watch the video for “Hollow” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links provided.

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Ones Loved’s “Fate by Design” is an IDM Dream Pop Song Imbued With Warmth and Sensitivity For a Relationship in the Process of Reconciling

Ones Loved combine a kind of dream pop sound palette with an IDM sensibility on its single “Fate by Design.” Meditative beats, intimate vocals seemingly sequenced, lingering bass lines and impressionistic guitar work conspire to convey the impression of a relationship in the process of reconciling. The music video has hazy images that match the layered atmospherics of the song and imagery that seems drawn from afternoon reveries and late night musings and in general a bit like one of those fan videos people have made for Boards of Canada with the mysterious footage stitched together but capturing the mood of the songs perfectly. The words without the clumsiness of being explicit and also without intellectualizing feelings express a depth of appreciation and understanding of another person while acknowledging how and where things might have broken down is something not so common in the realm of pop music and hits an affecting note here. Watch the video for “Fate by Design” on YouTube and follow Ones Loved at the links below.

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Hit Like A Girl’s Searing Emo Single “Keepsake Theory” is a Perfect Summation of Falling in Love and Subsequent Heartbreak

“Keepsake Theory” by Hit Like A Girl comes forth like an actual fusion of hardcore and synth pop with a thrilling energy. The lyrics sung by Nicolle Maroulis (they/them) have an undeniable gut punch for anyone that has ever felt like they had something with someone only to find out maybe the feelings or at least the commitment weren’t equally mutual and the searing pain of that realization. But what the song also contains within the lyrics and the performance of the music is the aftermath of processing that initial shot to the heart and honoring the emotions and sense of connection that drew you and a lost love together even if it didn’t ultimately turn out how you wanted it to. There’s a power in those moments and Hit Like A Girl expresses that entirety of the experience in mere three minutes twenty with a dramatic flourish and pitch perfect poignancy. The band’s new album Burning at Both Ends releases March 27, 2026 via Cryptid Records.

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Bad Flamingo Celebrates Arbitrary Social Taboos on Experimental Indie Folk Single “Shame”

Bad Flamingo, photo courtesy the artists

Bad Flamingo has truly been evolving in new directions as a band and the single “Shame” is a marked stylistic departure from its most recent compositions. A sustained focus on textural rhythm with the vocals carrying the melody runs throughout the song with some lingering guitar haunting the edges. The lyrics are not so much about a couple on the run from mainstream society. Rather, it’s a song about not feeling bad about being one’s authentic self even if it isn’t in alignment with traditional values and conventional mores and exulting in the kind of shame projected on anyone daring to transgress in the most basic of ways. The song seems to be about a love that doesn’t have the sanction of society but it’s a significant permutation beyond what the duo has been thus far in the songwriting. It’s like the adventure part of the long arc of the band’s mythology is in the past or on pause with some moments to reflect on what exactly is going on and making sense and reaffirming one’s dignity on a path to being where in fact shame is an unnecessary aspect of one’s life cast on you by judgmental folk who can’t seem to mind their own business. Watch the video for “Shame” on YouTube and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.

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Bad Peach Says Farewell to a New York City Mass Transit Institution With the Scrappy Art Punk Single “My Metrocard”

With “My Metrocard” Bad Peach pays tribute to the venerable MetroCard (in place since 1993) being phased out in late 2025 as a method to pay for using the public transit system in New York, replaced by the contactless, tap-to-pay OMNY (One Metro New York) system by card and phone. The song is a fusion of scrappy art punk and lo-fi synth pop and shows the band performing on the transit platforms around NYC and near shouting the conflicted affection for the fixture in one’s life as a New Yorker. “You kind of suck, but I kind of liked it/You’re kind of ugly but in a good way” sums up the attitude in saying goodbye to something that seemed like yet another part of everyday life we have to bid farewell in favor of something that seems to always invite more surveillance into our lives. Bad Peach rages against this dubious gesture of progress because that sort of thing in late capitalism usually means we pay more for less. Watch the video for “My Metrocard” on YouTube and follow Bad Peach on Spotify.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E38: Captain Buckles

Captain Buckles is a crew of veteran New Orleans sidemen that released its debut full length album Hurry Up on November 14, 2025 on streaming, digital download and cassette. Steeped in the eclectic blend of styles that have come out of the Crescent City with elements of funk, jazz, blues and psychedelic improvisational rock, Captain Buckles’ new album demonstrates the band has a style of their own. The members of the band have played with each other previous in line-ups touring and backing the likes of Samantha Fish, John “Papa” Gros, Russell Patiste and others. The group is comprised of New Orleans natives Rob Davis and Ezell Smith Jr., Floridian Alex Mallet, Los Angeles born Smitti Supab and Phil Breen originally from Pennsylvania but all have been playing professionally in the Big Easy for several years. The record was recorded at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana where Dr. John and B.B. King once laid down some music onto tape and it captures the natural chemistry and energy between the musicians and their ability to fuse styles and play to an evolving dynamic and organically shifting rhythms. The recording of Hurry Up was funded in part by a grand from the Threadhead Cultural Foundation.

Listen to our interview with bassist Smitti Supab on Bandcamp and follow Captain Buckles at the links below.

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Blue Tomorrows Works Through Heartache With Grace and Humor on Dream Pop Single “Santa Cruz”

Blue Tomorrows, photo courtesy the artist

Blue Tomorrows strikes a bittersweet note on “Santa Cruz.” Somewhere betwixt the tone of a countrified Marianne Faithfull on “Witches’ Song” and Low doing a Christmas song, the band employs an electronic bass line with a touch of phaser, light, almost shimmery acoustic guitar and vocals processed to sound both tender and otherworldly to great effect. The music video shows snow-laden trees the kind one isn’t likely to find in Santa Cruz, California but the warmly luminous melodies and wistful evocation of more pleasant memories to chase away the heartfelt melancholia paired with this imagery seems fitting. The song ends with our narrator finding a way to laugh again after a period of working through heartache and really feeling those lows as the only path to get through an emotionally rough patch intact. Watch the video for “Santa Cruz” on YouTube and follow Blue Tomorrows at the links below. The new album Weather Forever released December 12, 2025.

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Folktronica Single “modet” by meekmoss is a Meditation on the Everyday Routines That Make Our Lives Sustainable

An enigmatic yet warm drone brings us into meekmoss’ “modest” before minimal guitar and percussion joins vocals in an impressionistic dynamic until the song opens up like a rapidly developing dawn. This is a pattern in the song that reflects its themes of the recurring patterns and rituals in one’s life that whether we think about them or not keep our lives going and sustainable. Sure there are moments of great action color, drama, intensity and deeply meaningful experiences but all are connected by quieter moments that whether or not we appreciate them or notice make the big events we get to experience possible. The song meditates on that interconnecting time and activity that seems manageable and an awareness of these times and how important they are to our very existence. The line “And daily routine keeps me alive” is so simple but anyone that has had to deal with health issues knows that regular activities and rituals can be critical to keeping one’s life going and on an even keel so that those things that count as significant events can be engaged in with our full selves. The song balances the line between folk and experimental electronic pop and between texture, tone and rhythm perfectly without seeming effort in parallel with the need for awareness of small details that don’t always get our full, conscious focus. Listen to “modest” on Spotify and follow German Folktronica group meekmoss at the links provided.

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TRAITRS’ Deeply Melancholic Single “If Was Ill, You Were Wrong” is a Salve on Deep Psychic Pain

“I Was Ill, You Were Wrong” by Canadian post-punk band TRAITRS has the hazy synth melodies underneath highly emotive vocals and driving rhythms one might expect out of early 80s The Cure. The heartwrenching vocals express the feelings of someone who has been on the receiving end of what feels like an especially spate of lack of empathy. It is the sound of someone profoundly hurt and disappointed yet sympathetic to the pain and misfortune that resulted in a situation in which people connected are split because bad habits are unbanished by affection. Listen to “I Was Ill, You Were Wrong” on YouTube and follow TRAITRS at the links below. The band’s new album POSSESSOR releases March 13, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.