SubmitHub – Page 173 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Death Hags Encourage Us to Exercise Radical Self-Acceptance on “Be Who You Are”

DeathHags_BeWhoYouAre2_crop — Death Hags, image courtesy the artists

The Skyforest edit of Death Hags’ “Be Who You Are” is reminiscent of Lush through the filter of C86 or late 90s Denver, Colorado and Athens, Georgia indie pop. Its introspective minimalism and hazy melody is irresistible with enough of fuzzy grit to give the song the kind of texture that sticks with you as well in the wash of sounds. Comparing the song to something Black Tambourine might have put out seems facile but the resonance is there for anyone looking for something with a similar vibe today. The message of the song, what the band says is “a call for radical self-acceptance,” seems essential in an era when there is so much personal dissection and the critique of others in our over-mediated society with our presence on the internet on various platforms. Simply accepting yourself for who and what you are shouldn’t seem radical, though it was challenging long before social media existed, but at this point in our collective social development in tandem with that of our technology it is. The song is part of BIG GREY SUN, a seven volume project to be released as four cassettes and a triple album throughout 2020 and 2021. Listen to “Be Who You Are” on Bandcamp and follow Death Hags at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/death_hags
facebook.com/deathhagsmusic
instagram.com/death_hags

Lizzy & The Fanatics Set a Relationship Down Lightly With the Breezy Dream Pop Song “Far Away”

LizzyAndTheFanatics_FarAway1_sm — Lizzy & the Fanatics, photo courtesy the artist

Lizzy & The Fanatics waft in with “Far Away” with a swirling puff of sparkling sounds before the vocals seem to bring a coherence to these tones. The effect is a bit like becoming aware during a daydream and the gentle guitar riff is a bit reminiscent of that of “Dreams” by The Cranberries. The song sounds so nostalgic you might think it’s wistful about missing the one you love but the turn of phrase about “I need to let you know, I wanted to feel close” reveals a complexity of feeling that isn’t common enough in music. Of needing to be honest with oneself and with one’s feelings while not wanting to hurt those of another person. The progression conjures images of someone floating on a cloud and contemplating a potentially messy situation from a more objective vantage point one step removed from the immediate events but not the immediacy of feeling. And the song has a freshness bright tones that indicates no heaviness or dark intent is meant even if it’s probably unavoidable that someone will get hurt in the end, perhaps a poetic attempt to let someone down lightly. Listen to “Far Away” on Soundcloud and follow Lizzy & The Fanatics at the links provided below.

lizzyfanatic.tumblr.com
soundcloud.com/thefanaticsofficial
open.spotify.com/artist/7l4sVkNSc4v6058rs4GnJr
lizzysongs.bandcamp.com

“Hackney smack deal” is the Rec’s Public Service Announcement to the Roommates of People Who Might Have a Falling Out With Their Procurers of Elicit Substances

TheRec_HackneySmackDeal2_crop — the Rec “Hackney smack deal” cover (cropped)

Without making too much light of the situation, the Rec tell a true story of the negative fallout of drug use and the people with whom you share a dwelling on “Hackney smack deal.” In the group’s style of gritty yet playful vocals and a lively beat, the Rec describes a group of men who show up one day to collect money due regardless of whether the unlucky sod who answers the door is the person owing the debt. A synth like a lazy but insistent siren runs through the track along with a jangle of what sounds like metal trinkets and a pounding drum giving the whole song an intense but surreal energy. The chorus is delivered in a nearly casual manner, describing a terrifying encounter: “We want the smack or the cash, is what they said, we want the smack or the cash, with a crack to my head, we want the smack or the cash, now my mind is numb, we want the smack or the cash, with a heart like a bass drum.” Later we hear about a “punch to the eyeball” and “no friendly handshakes” and confusion about the whole situation until, in the end, our narrator figures out what is going on and tells us, “The moral of the story is know your mates, never trust a man with black spoons or paper plates.” Fans of Sleaford Mods and Pop Will Eat Itself will appreciate the way the Rec’s style in putting a harrowing story to a captivating beat. Listen to “Hackney smack deal” on Bandcamp and follow the Rec at the links provided.

therec1.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/therecOswestry

JAF 34’s Video For “Light” is an Audio-Visual Experience of Abstract Cosmic Proportions

JAF34_Light1_crop — JAF 34, image courtesy the artist

JAF 34 crafted “Light” as a multimedia experience with the music video a perfect parallel to its evolving, ambient music track. Beams and fragments of light swirl and come together the way the informal melody saturates and and develops and then gives way to open space within which contours represented by solid streams of sound sketch the entire universe in the background of the figure in the foreground of a color not out of space but in it, giving off a warm orange glow as white lines like ley lines in the architecture of the greater universe can be seen. Triangle shapes connected like something out of a the inspiration for Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes connect the various places in the video like the lattice in which material existence is overlaid. Then a cowled figure sits in this space-scape, translated to a cluster of light motes once the shimmering drone that has carried us throughout the song so far passes into silence replaced by a distant, cycling tone as though to reflect the dearth of light and imagery in the video that had been so bright and relatively dense before. The white noise in the track at that time like the fragments of the last transmissions of a craft that has passed into the event horizon of a black hole. Watch the video for “Light” on YouTube follow JAF 34 at the website linked below.

jaf34.com

Dead Lucid’s Desolation EP Dissolves the Boundaries Between Post-Punk, Psychedelia and Proto-Punk

DeadLucid_Desolation2_crop — Dead Lucid *Desolation* cover (cropped)

Chicago’s Dead Lucid inject a great deal of noisy psychedelia into its post-punk on the new EP Desolation. Obvious touchstones can be heard on “Romance” like early Joy Division and that band’s own roots in the stark menace of the Stooges. The guitar operates like a droning wash over the bass and drums while the raw vocals carry the melody. “Rain” sounds like it’s going to be a dirty surf track but the tribal percussion bludgeons its way into the song and as the straight ahead guitar edges toward a warping, grinding sound. “Ambrosia” begins with a desolate introspection but blossoms into a dynamic yet melancholy ballad. “Head” brings things back into the realm of proto-punk and a charging song about coming unhinged. The title track of the EP is a sprawling fusion of minimalism and guitar solo maximalism yet one in which a sense of hitting rock bottom finds its expression when those fiery passages dissipate. Fans of Pop. 1280 and Protomartyr will appreciate how this EP doesn’t get stuck in some trendy post-punk of yesteryear worship nor does it try to scratch every itch of flavor and its own psychedelia while a nod to when Led Zeppelin went weird or something like Captain Beyond hanging out with Robin Trower and getting trippier is very much its own. Listen to Desolation on Bandcamp and follow Dead Lucid at the links provided.

deadlucid.com
open.spotify.com/artist/6iTwxNizRmTeuBV0XWt0iO
deadlucid.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/deadlucid
instagram.com/deadlucid

Hanna Ojala Sheds Conventions of Melody, Rhythm and Meter On Her Tonal Dream Poem “Mamba Experience”

HannaOjala_MambaExperience1_sm — Hanna Ojala, photo courtesy the artist

The sound of water and a sound like a heartbeat, the kind you can hear while swimming, pulses through Hanna Ojala’s latest single “Mamba Experience.” The sound of a rattle sets an organic rhythm as Ojala speaks a dream poem about taking on the aspect of a mamba and its menace, its power, its primordial elegance. As the song ends the sounds of water give way to those of what sounds like an electronic emulation of a campfire by the shore, the life pulse still in your ears as though it’s the one aspect of your awareness of your body that persists in the dream state conjured with this arrangement of sounds. Listening, it’s reminiscent of some of the more out there parts of Laurie Anderson’s United States Live, in particular “Blue Lagoon,” wherein conventional song structures unravel in the wake of intuitive soundscapes that follow the mood and experience conveyed heading into one’s own dream of paradise to reach the center of consciousness. Ojala’s own journey to her mythic center is embodied in that pre-mammalian existence of the snake that symbolizes an awakening to consciousness and awareness and the unification of the dark and light, logical and emotional sides of the mind, that cosmic spiral of the labyrinth as a path toward illumination. “Mamba Experience” is technically a song but it is one that sheds being tied to conventions of melody, rhythm and meter. Listen to “Mamba Experience” on YouTube and follow Ojala at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/h_mo
youtube.com/channel/UCOciWsXO_7cDSrveFlwSmkA

Hunnid Hits Hard at the Persistent Issue of Police Brutality With “Hang On”

Hunnid_HangOn1_lg — Hunnid, photo courtesy the artist

The video for Hunnid’s latest single with Ceeno “Hang On” presents the issue of police brutality and murder of black people in a way that is vivid, hard, hitting and creative. Hunnid’s vocals are direct and commanding yet fluid as he lays out lines about how the experiences he’s had around that issue and through that issue have impacted his own psyche and that of people he knows in the way that only something like the possibility of being randomly killed by a cop who decides you might be an imminent threat purely because of your ethnicity and the neighborhood in which you might live. Or if you were in New York City while Michael Bloomberg was mayor one of over a thousand or two thousand black youths a month who were stopped and frisked for guns to with a one tenth of one percent success rate to justify a Gestapo-like policy. The more synth-y part of the beat of this song matches the heightened sense of emotional urgency of the words while the deep bass-infused middle emphasizes the heaviness of the situation that one would hope would be better with the higher level of scrutiny police brutality has received but about which not nearly enough has been done on a national level. Yet, Hunnid manages to have written this song in a way that is compelling and doesn’t downplay the subject of his song without it being a complete bummer, instead it draws attention to persistent and deadly social ill that shouldn’t be swept under the rug during election season. Watch the video for “Hang On” on YouTube and follow Hunnid at the links provided.

keepit1oo.com/home
soundcloud.com/hunnid-2
open.spotify.com/artist/2fA2gTgVlYNhArTuXvHwy0
youtube.com/channel/UCkIiLVOUS_yNjNPYMKTxq5A
twitter.com/Hunnid_CCG
facebook.com/HunnidCCG
instagram.com/hunnid_ccg

Doo Crowder Deep Dives Into the Heart of Human Creativity and the Aspirations on “Doo Crowder song”

one-for-the-losers-and_other_pilgrims_cover_crop — Doo Crowder *One for the losers (& other pilgrims* cover (cropped)

Door Crowder is probably largely unknown outside of Denver where he garnered a bit of an audience in punky indie band The Dinnermints and a bonafide cult following with his avant-folk pop group Pee Pee. As a solo artist, having long since left the Mile High City, he has explored a broad range of songwriting styles and sounds but with his latest album, One for the losers (& other pilgrims), having a full release in January 2020, Crowder is coming into his own as a composer of engrossing pop songs that plumb the depths of personal psychology in a way resonant with just about anyone. With the single “Doo Crowder song,” the songwriter uses a meta narrative about his journey as a creative person and his relationship with the motivations, temptations and supposed rewards of aspiring to be the kind of artist that can reach a wide audience by virtue of having something relatable and significant to say in a way that is also creatively rewarding. And to use that art as a vehicle to explore identity, the meaning of life, relationships and everything that helps to define and illuminate our lives. Crowder’s gently expressive voice flows through the song like a spirit and musically it taps into folk and psychedelia and employs some sly musical allusions to bring the mood of an era to various passages in the song as a tool to evoke the contextual emotional touchstones of ones memory. In a time of great confusion and disconnection in the world, here Crowder offers his own set of questions and yearnings without offering answers, but perhaps suggesting a method for all of us to untangle our own angst and get to a place of love, connection and tranquility. At the end of the song is a spoken part that connects the song to the rest of the album but the album entire is worth a solid listen as it offers more facets of this beautiful excursis into the human psyche in the modern era. Listen to “Doo Crowder song” on Spotify and follow Crowder at the links below.

distrokid.com/hyperfollow/doocrowder/one-for-the-losers–other-pilgrims
youtu.be/rUIFaASrLMs
instagram.com/doocrowder

“Chasing Crazy” by Rx27 is an Irreverent Diss Track For a World Where Love is Another Commodity

Rx27_ChasingCrazy1_Crop — Rx27, photo courtesy the artists

“Chasing Crazy” finds Rx27 sneering at this era in which love is too often shallow, insipid, casual and commodified in a way that leeches all the grit, blood and essential humanity out of it. Online dating and the odd catalog/menu quality of it as echoed in so many areas of our lives seems to have warped our sense of what is vital and life-affirming. Singers Joie X Blaney and Msmaxine Murrderr trade lines like 45 Grave doing a tag team diss track. Though nearly shouted as a chorus, the refrain of “fuck forever” casts that throwaway word forever in its most colloquial and conceptual usage as the subjective experience that feels like forever but also as a rejection of the values of temporal and tepid rather than passionate, meaningful and enduring. The subtext of the song one might assume as being wanting the kind of love that’s transformative and deeply significant over transient and merely titillating. The line “Cry me a river hoping I will down, I would rather be alone than on your merry-go-round” is key as it poetically states a principle of wanting something that matters rather than be part of someone’s game in which everyone involved is disposable. “Chasing Crazy” blurs the line between punk, glam and death rock with a bombastically irreverent attitude toward the norms of this drab age and yet, in its own way, is the kind of love song that eschews the clichés by chasing after something that might seem crazy to some and that is something that is more than appearances and with someone whose flaws we accept and who accepts ours as part of the deal of being in a relationship with another actual human being. Listen to “Chasing Crazy” on Spotify and follow Rx27 at the links below.

therx27.com
youtube.com/channel/UCFX258qE-EJzVgNZX4Dbbyw
twitter.com/therx27
facebook.com/therx27
instagram.com/rx27_official

The Fragile Elegance and Economy of Songwriting in Hannah Connolly’s “Meet You There” Lingers Long as a Vivid Portrait of Deep Affection

HannahConnolly_MeetYouThere1_crop — Hannah Connolly “Meet You There” cover (cropped)

In the spare acoustic guitar figure running through Hannah Connolly’s “Meet You There” we find a place to relax and take in the gentle affection with which the songwriter uses imagery to craft vibrant sense memories of the person she loves. At times her voice delivers the lines alone, at other times it’s doubled as though Connolly is harmonizing with herself. There is a sense of the early morning in the song and in fact Connolly sings “When the sun comes breaking through the dawn, I’ll meet you there/ When the waves come crashing on the shore I’ll meet you there” to express a longing without overwrought emotions. When she sings “I like driving through the canyons on the days I’m missing you, you said they look just like a green screen and I smile because it’s true,” Connolly gives a unique and rich sense of place that is immediately relatable and speaks much more about the place the person to whom these lyrics are directed has in her heart that the usual platitudes about love that drive so many songs don’t. It is in the fragile elegance and economy of Connolly’s songwriting where its power lies because it is that quality that lingers with you longer than bombastic declarations of devotion. Listen to “Meet You There” on Soundcloud and look for Connolly’s forthcoming full-length From Where You Are due out in 2020.