Queen City Sounds and Art

Walter The Producer’s “PAMPLEMOUSSE” is a Soulful Power Pop Ballad About Un-Recipricated Infatuation and Moving On

Walter The Producer, photo courtesy the artist

Walter The Producer’s “PAMPLEMOUSSE” sounds like an a fusion of soul and fuzzy power pop and in the highly entertaining music video (directed by Dylan Budnieski) the melodrama of its lyrics manifest in humorously self-aware fashion. The song is about a crush that doesn’t pan out the way our narrator would like, as is usually the case, but the song gives those fragile and tender feelings the share of dignity they deserve because most people have felt a wave of attraction to someone who may not share those sentiments to the same degree or not at all and it doesn’t have to be in a creepy way or head in a negative direction. You get disappointed and you move on and the song with its almost orchestral arrangements succinctly captures that moment as well. Walter has honed in on something in this short song that a lot of people could learn from and that’s that disappointment doesn’t have to be catastrophized and you can still feel the feels and be comfortable in knowing that genuinely having them doesn’t mean they were worthless even if they’re reciprocated. Watch the video for “PAMPLEMOUSSE” on YouTube and follow Walter The Producer at the links below. Look for the album PLEASE HELP ME I’M SCARED due out later in 2024.

Walter The Producer on Twitter

Walter The Producer on TikTok

Walter The Producer on Intagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E17: Orange Peel Moses

Orange Peel Moses has been a figure in the Colorado music scene going back over a decade. He first came to prominence in the 2000s for his collaborations with production duo Friends in Stereo garnering critical and popular acclaim for a string of singles that bridged a gap between pop, indie rock and electronic dance music. Around that same time the Orange Peel Moses also entered into a long career as a singing telegram artist whose performances have appeared on television. He is also a stilt performer who has been onstage with LMFAO and Will.i.am at Ultra Music Festival in Miami as well as the Electric Daisy Carnival. He has also done impersonations of various characters like Hunter S. Thompson, The Grinch, Jack Skellington and The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. You might not be able to track down a conventional physical release of any Orange Peel Moses music because he’s mainly been focused on occasional singles as original releases including his new song “Under the Eclipse.” The song was written by OPM who also performs lead vocals but the rest of the music was brought to life by collaborators like engineer, producer and musician El Javi, Erik Deutsch on piano (Leftover Salmon, The Black Crowes, Dixie Chicks etc.), percussionist Zay Alejandro Rios and backing vocals by Lex Alvis. All mixed and mastered by Andy McEwen at Crucible Recording in Eldorado Springs, Colorado. The song is about a man who is looking for a partner with whom to make a “magical eclipse baby with him during a total solar eclipse.” In the lushly colorful music video we see live musical performances tof OPM test-driving the song in front of audiences mixed with frolicking in clubs and scenes of the narrator of the story living out his dream. Musically it’s a charming and humorous blend of piano driven, folk-inflected indie rock and gentle psychedelia reminiscent of early 70s Cat Stevens. In the wake of the release of the single Orange Peel Moses will perform during the Texas Eclipse event at Reveille Park Range Friday April 5, 2024 through Tuesday, April, 9, 2024 in the path of totality. Following that on April 19 at Archipelago Clubs for “Singaversary: 20 Years of Singing Grams” to mark a major anniversary of his career.

Listen to our interview with Orange Peel Moses on Bandcamp, watch the music video for “Under the Eclipse” below and follow the artist at the links provided.

orangepeelmoses.com

Orange Peel Moses on Facebook

Orange Peel Moses on Instagram

Orange Peel Moses on Twitter

@orangepeelmoses

Razor Braids Honor and Calm the Parade of Thoughts That Course Through Your Head When You’re Trying to Be Present on “It Goes Quiet”

Razor Braids, photo courtesy the artists

There is a deep sense of nearly paralyzing self-awareness in Razor Braids’ single “It Goes Quiet.” But the song with its themes of learning to be present in relationships rides that fine line between overthinking and trying to be sensitive to the boundaries and concerns of one’s partner and not letting those thoughts overwhelm you. The distorted guitar lines interweave with those more moody, introspective and atmospheric in moments reflecting the various impulses of mind that one navigates in moments of peak vulnerability that borders on insecurity and veering off letting that state guide one’s feelings away from dissociating in reaction to the flood of thoughts and emotional colorings that can come into your heart and head when you’re trying to be mindful and not mess up something special. The line “I feel like I am somebody else” and the bit about “the weight of words unsaid” speak to that tension eloquently. And the final line of the song “I wanna be your ocean, swim in me, stay the night” articulates a desire for intimacy and deep connection that can seem intense though real. It’s a short song imbued with great psychological nuance that gives comfort in the acknowledgment of the multiplicity of thoughts that can pull one away from being in the moment. Listen to “It Goes Quiet” on Spotify and follow Razor Braids at the links below.

Razor Braids on Facebook

Razor Braids on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E16: Dust City Opera

Dust City Opera, photo courtesy the artists

Dust City Opera is a rock band from Albuquerque, New Mexico whose sound interweaves orchestral Americana, dark psychedelia and art pop into cinematic and literary songs filled with evocative tales of “sadness, madness and mayhem.” But within the group’s rich body of work there is a surreal sense of humor and humanity that reveals an empathy for the human condition and the characters and situations depicted in which listeners can identify aspects of their own experiences navigating our often physically and emotionally perilous world. Since it’s 2018 foundation, pick any of Dust City Opera’s albums from its 2019 debut album Heaven to 2022’s horror and science fiction themed Alien Summer record to the 2024 EP Cold Hands (released March 8 via Rexius Records) and you’ll hear imaginatively eclectic arrangements and vivid narratives from a band that seems fully realized even as it’s still relatively early in its career. There is a theatrical sensibility to the music that translates to the band’s live performances that fans of the likes of DeVotchKa and Beirut will appreciate.

Listen to our interview with Dust City Opera on Bandcamp and follow Dust City Opera at the links below. Dust City Opera is now on tour starting April 4, 2024 throughout Colorado and the midwest including a stop in Denver at Swallow Hill on Saturday, April 6 with Avourneen, doors 7pm, show 8pm. THIS SHOW HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 7, 2024.

dustcityopera.com

Dust City Opera on Instagram

Dust City Opera on Facebook

Dust City Opera on YouTube

Dust City Opera on TikTok

Ringo Deathstarr’s Remix of Lauren Lakis’ “Terror Tears” Transforms the Introspective Dream Pop Original Into a Beautiful, Industrial Darkwave Nightmare

Lauren Lakis, photo courtesy the artists

Ringo Deathstarr took Lauren Lakis’ “Terror Tears” and transformed the spacious, dream pop gorgeousness into a distorted and urgent borderline industrial song. Where previously the music felt introspective and tranquil, this version sounds like it was inspired by the title to engage in some deconstuction and in the last third of the song it is almost pure rhythm and rapidly echoing guitar stripped of all but the barest of melodies and the vocals like a ghost haunting an old television that bursts forth into vivid focus in the last moments of the song. It is nearly unrecognizable from the original and a remix that truly explores the possibilities of the songwriting. Listen to Lauren Lakis’ “Terror Tears (Ringo Deathstarr Mix)” on Spotify and follow Lauren Lakis at the links provided.

Lauren Lakis on Twitter

Lauren Lakis on Facebook

Lauren Lakis on TikTok

Lauren Lakis on Instagram

Lauren Lakis on Bandcamp

Lauren Lakis on YouTube

Mikahl Anthony’s “Space Blue/Deep Ain’t It” is a Poignantly Poetic Meditation on World Weariness and Resilience Set to Cosmic Jazz, Blues and Psychedelic Soul

Mikahl Anthony, photo courtesy the artist

The applause the open Mikahl Anthony’s “Space Blue” give the song the air of an early 70s psychedelic soul/late night jazz lounge feel. Runs of keyboards burst and drift off into the cosmos and the vocals opine about the state of the world and the state of a relationship and the way those developments intersect. The track is two minutes seven seconds but Anthony seems to layer so many musical and thematic ideas into that small space with deft nods simultaneously to Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and Dilla. It has a deeply introspective mood yet one that seems yearning for meaning and connection and a weariness with the way the world and life often are but aware that often one can’t make changes as quickly and as thoroughly as one would prefer. And thus the final line of the song “I sing the same old blues song” has a playfulness and resonance that hits like a complex truth expressed with a poetic poignant succinctness. Listen to “Space Blue” on Spotify.

M Wagner’s “Release Yrself” is a Joyous Catharsis Swimming in Urgent Grainy Melodies and Tranquil Tones

The distorted stream of sounds in M Wagner’s “Release Yrself” sounds like you’re hearing a joyous outburst of melodic tones through the filter of a blizzard. One imagines someone walking from a secluded manor up a path to the site where all the fun is happening having come late to the proceedings and missing the shuttle or the procession through a fog and snow shower but knowing you want to be there. And in the last just over a minute of the song the haze clears and crystalline bell tones ring out in the near distance signaling your arrival and freedom from the challenges and resistance encountered to and of the urgency of the effort. And in the end of the song the grainy effect on the tones returns like a reminder of how the journey had its own sense of significance and catharsis. The song as a whole is like a futuristic techno club hit. Listen to “Release Yrself” on Spotify and follow M Wagner at the links below. The artist’s new album We Could Stay releases on May 17, 2024.

M Wagner on Instagram

Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes Burn Through a Sense of Social Stagnation in the Urgency of Indie Pop Single “EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING”

Daniel Ellsworth, photo courtesy the artist

“EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING” by Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes surges forth from the beginning of the song with a sustained sense of joyful urgency. Ellsworth’s rich falsetto soars over and through the song and seems to both guide and carried on by the steady beat and ethereal synths like something out of a daydream, guitar providing both textured melody and arcs of bright tonality. It seems to be a song about a sense of how things and places can be essentially the same or feel familiar but always changing in ways that can seem overwhelming but also not fast enough in many ways. It’s about a sense of comfort with the familiar but also a desire for the world around you to progress at a pace that that matches an expectation that nothing can fully stay stagnant because the nature of existence is change. The song bridges synth pop, electro soul and indie rock in a way that feels fortifying and transporting at once. The group’s new album HIGH LIFE released February 16, 2024. Listen to “EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING” on Spotify and follow Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes and the songwriter’s other projects at the links provided.

Daniel Ellsworth on Facebook

Daniel Ellsworth on Instagram

Shadow Sides Delves Into the Disconnect Between Romantic Fascination and Real Connection in the Delicate Dream Pop of “We Say Love But We Don’t Mean It”

Shadow Sides delves into another realm of human relationships that often goes unspoken or dimly understood with its new single “We Say Love But We Don’t Mean It.” Its languid pace and nearly whispered vocals with the pulse of a bass figure it’s musically reminiscent of the song “Seven Sisters” by Rainer Maria except for the icy synth that blooms throughout the song like a neglected part of one’s mind chiming in a reminder through pure feeling of a deeply buried yearning for real connection rather than those the logical mind has convinced itself would be cool and exciting and thus desirable. The title is the chorus of the song and as the narrative of the song unfolds the pace picks up and the line “Protect our hearts/Emotional blind spots/I want it, I need it/We say love but we don’t mean it” hits like a personal revelation wrapped in spidery, delicately chiming guitar work and the aforementioned bass line that now feels like a comforting presence. It’s a song about wanting someone to be something to you that they really aren’t and one’s willingness to look past red flags and deal breakers of behavior and personality because isn’t this superficially and attractive person the one you want to be with? Are you in this state of being capable of even knowing who you want to be with for longer than a day or a moment? Sometimes in life you don’t know and it’s part of the learning process for many people of learning how to actually love with integrity and not the charade of such based on an impulse and a whim. The song is about not quite being there but having an understanding that what you thought you wanted isn’t. Which is a stage of emotional evolution that some people never seem to get to stuck thinking they’re in love with people that are bad for them and torturing themselves by holding on when they should let go. Listen to “We Say Love But We Don’t Mean It” on Spotify and follow Shadow Sides at the links below.

Shadow Sides on Facebook

Shadow Sides on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E15: Andrés Cepeda

Andrés Cepeda is one of the most well known musical artists out of his home country of Columbia. A musician since an early age, Cepeda studied music in college and became the lead singer in Latin pop-rock group Poligamia throughout the 90s before pursuing a solo career by the end of that decade. Cepeda’s musical range and depth has garnered him both critical accolades and commercial success in Colombia with his 2001 album El Carpintero going quadruple platinum. He is a four-time winner of the Latin Grammys and his 2023 album Décimo Cuarto attained Gold certification. His emotionally rich and nuanced vocals and musicianship has made the artist a popular figure at home in a similar status as Shakira and Carlos Vives and he has been a judge on La Voz, the Colombian edition of The Voice for twelve seasons. In April 2024, Cepeda will embark on a North American tour of 19 dates including Carnegie Hall in NYC. Calling the string of dates the Tengo Ganas tour, Cepeda and his band will focus more on the pop, rock and electronic side of his songwriting than the more traditional and Balada style with which his name is often immediately associated.

Listen to our interview with Cepeda on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below. Andrés Cepeda will perform at The Paramount Theatre on Sunday, April 14, 2024 (doors 6:30pm, show 7:30pm).

andrescepeda.com.co

Andrés Cepeda on Instagram