Applied Communications – Queen City Sounds and Art

applied communications’ Retro Synth Pop Single “return of jafar” is a Song Suggesting We Re-Examine What We Think Are Our Dreams

applied communications, photo courtesy the artist

There is something surreal and relatable about applied communications in the video for “return of jafar.” It looks like something made on an iMac in the 90s, appropriate given the cinematic reference of the title with its own resonances for the themes of the song as well. Throughout the song Max Wood relates what sounds like the inversion of the usual nostalgia of youth like someone who is deeply skeptical of the concept in the face of lived reality. But he whimsically delivers lines that are dryly amusing yet insightful like a music resonant with the sensibilities of a Daniel Clowes comic. The line “I have this vision I can’t see/It’s always driving me/To something I don’t believe” and the bit about the “jazz interlude” reveals a level of sardonic wit that isn’t heard in much music. With the song ending with the repeated line “return of jafar” fits the rhythm of what we’ve been hearing but also a sly nod to hey this thing you think you’ve always wanted out of life, is it really what it’s cracked up to be or do you maybe take what you think your aspirations might be a little less to heart and be willing to do things differently. Nothing about the song is too on the nose and that’s part of the appeal behind it sounding like a bizarre alternative soundtrack to a lost computer and New Age self-help informercial. Watch the video for “return of jafar” on YouTube and follow applied communications at the links below. The new album applied communications bites the big one released September 25, 2026 via Rare Noodles in collaboration with Bar/None Records.

applied communications on Instagram

applied communications Deftly Weaves Sly Cultural References Into Surreal Indie Pop Single “cowboy bebop & eric’s trip” to Cathartic Effect

Prepare for some colorful and inspired weirdness before watching the video for applied communications’ single “cowboy bebop & eric’s trip.” It looks like something that was imagined in a part of the 80s before the artist was born but with image references that could only come from the 90s to now with the proper video tools to produce something that intentionally looks retro in a way that hasn’t been done a million times since the late 2000s. The music too is like something that absorbed Why? and late 2000s indie pop including post-punk weirdos The Mathematicians through the lens of late 90s Modest Mouse. But none of those comparisons does justice to the appeal of the song that seems to reference going to ambient shows which is not something many other artists seem to do and for anyone that does go to those kinds of performances, much less plays them, this feels like a real nod to that rarified reality. He also mentions “geologist’s bag” – a reference to the member of Animal Collective who does sound manipulation and provides many of the samples for the band? Nevermind the title name checking a beloved animated series and both an obscure, underground alternative rock band (whose membership included later indie rock darling Julie Doiron) and the Sonic Youth song after which it was named. Even if not, the potential triple entendre fits the vibe of the song which feels like someone coming out of a place of psychological and emotional stasis and climbing the ladder through familiar cultural reference points to a place of being ready to embrace new experiences which doesn’t happen nearly often enough in music much less with something so individual in sound and visual presentation as this. Watch the video for “cowboy bebop * eric’s trip” on YouTube and follow applied communications at the links below.

applied communications on Instagram

Applied Communications Salvages the Crumbling Relevancy of the Cultural Touchstones of Youth in Bedroom Synthpop Single “Oxytocin Drunk”

Applied Communications dives deep into Millennial nostalgia and inverted self-loathing on “Oxytocin Drunk.” The song has an upbeat melody and rhythm with expertly cadenced lyrics altogether like an indiepop MC Chris song. The song is beyond a parody of the angry nerd. It takes all the intrusive and dark thoughts that sink you when, for those that can relate, when you’re swan diving into the terminal velocity of the amplified anxiety zone and turns them into unlikely life rafts in the depression deep end. There’s a choice, wryly tragic joke about kids whose faces we’ll never see when the Tamagotchi dies. All amidst dated cultural references and the detritus of the symbols of a ruined middle class American life that were foundations of life if you were alive before the late 90s. Applied Communications both laughs and lets out a few implied tears at the absurdity of it all and the emotional anchors that helped define our lives swimming in consumer culture and in the end with a line about how he loves himself, a nod to the title of the song, and the trap of being too tied up in that yet needing to do so to have some thread of something to cling to that can’t really be taken away from you or forcefully redefined/sequeled/re-queled or discarded like so many of the things to which one might have a nostalgic attachment. And there is actual power and dignity in that realization. A lot of self-awareness and personal insight is packed into the roughly two minute song as well as a curiously poignant pop resonance that stays with you. Listen to “Oxytocin Drunk” on Spotify and follow Applied Communications at the links below.