SubmitHub – Page 225 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Amor Solo Te” by Gina Brooklyn is Both a Sense Memory and an Ethereal, Tender Love Ballad

GinaBrooklyn4_sm — Gina Brooklyn, photo courtesy the artist

Gina Brooklyn sounds like she’s singing from some distant sea shore to a love far away on “Amo Solo Te.” One needn’t understand Italian to take in the emotional tenor of the song which is that of day dreamy yearning and longing. The simple guitar melody is ethereal like something out of a Cocteau Twins song and the sample of water flowing conveys a sense of the tide coming in. The short song works as both a gentle folk ballad and as a sense memory giving it more dimensionality than the song, already compelling enough, would have on its own. Listen to “Amo Solo Te” on Spotify and follow this promising young songwriter at the links provided.

linkedin.com/in/ginabrooklyn
soundcloud.com/ginabrooklyn-music
open.spotify.com/artist/1xswzC6LnLbD13DfNDmQOc
youtube.com/ginabrooklyn
twitter.com/ginabrooklynn
facebook.com/ginabrooklynnmusic
instagram.com/ginabrooklynn

“Silver” by High Aura’d and Josh Mason is a Collection of the Ambient Interstices of Mid-90s Post-Hardcore Fury

HighAuradAndJoshMason1_sm — High aura’d and Josh Mason, photo courtesy the artists

Inspired by the between times between songs at shows from old post-hardcore bands like Portraits of Past and Clikatat Ikatowi, “Silver,” a collaboration between High aura’d and Josh Mason is an ambient interpretation of a faded sonic photograph of a time and place, relatively short lived, when bands on labels like Ebullition and Gravity were making some of the most exciting and challenging music of the era. The processed textures and raw noise is a tribute to those between actual song interludes that those bands would issue forth while getting ready to hurl themselves into the fury of the next song. The track is like a compilation of memories of everything but the actual songs themselves and a reminder that post-hardcore wasn’t just the screaming, not just the angular guitar and jolts of electrifying musical fire, it was also the times when you got a break from the pure catharsis to enjoy a moment to perhaps reflect and take in the signficance of the experience between being caught up in it completely. These sounds assembled are an expression of the silver linings of the storm clouds of the shows of an era and milieu now largely forgotten but still so significant for the hidden history of American indie underground. It is a record of times you will never forget but of those moments that are often forgotten. Listen to the track on Soundcloud and watch its video at the Bandcamp link below where you can also purchase a vinyl of the piece.

highauradjoshmason.bandcamp.com

Anna Wiebe Invites Us to be Present and In Tune With Our Environment on “I Felt It In The Wind

AnnaWiebe3_sm — Anna Wiebe, photo courtesy the artist

With an admirable sonic economy, Anna Wiebe has in “I Felt It In The Wind” crafted a simple melody that almost works as a three part harmony but between her warm, unaffected vocals, spare rhythm guitar and synth shimmering in the background. She remarks upon how subtle signals give us a read on a situation if we’re willing to be tuned in and present. Switching between tonal inflections through the short song, Wiebe brings to the song a broader emotional and thematic element than is immediately obvious as though she is dropping those subtleties about which she sings to interpret and read between the lines of meaning and to invest oneself in the song’s delicate sounds and structure if only for its short duration. Wiebe’s album All I Do is Move is due out later in summer 2019 but until then give “I Felt It In The Wind” a listen below and check Wiebe’s Facebook page for more details on the album release and live performances.

facebook.com/annawiebemusic

Drooligan Take the Piss Out of Magical Thinking on “The Weather”

Drooligan1_crop — Drooligan, photo courtesy the artists

Drooligan’s “The Weather” is a fairly upbeat, somewhat whimsical song considering its subject matter. The lyrics thoroughly and near completely send up every day wishful thinking and the superstitions backing them. It mocks the whole notion of prayers and hopes solving anything including stopping inclement weather. With the accompanying music video the band demonstrates how silly it all is even if certain forms of magical thinking are relatively harmless as a pathology that gets so many people to think their ego (as, dare we say, manifested as nonsense like The Secret/the “law of attraction” and positive visualization as more than a method to focus the mind in addition to the faith in a supreme being or the universe intervening directly on the behalf of any particular human) will have an actual direct impact on their lives. Even as Drooligan is taking the piss the playfulness of the video takes off some of the edge as, after all, social critics who take themselves too seriously end up like low rent Robespierre in the end. Watch the video below and follow Drooligan at the links provided.

drooligan.com
facebook.com/Drooliganmusic
instagram.com/drooligan

Swedish Avant-Pop Songwriter Czita’s Debut Single “Pretty Eyes” is a Psychological Horror Short Film in Musical Form

Czita1_crop — Czita, photo courtesy the artist

Czita comments on standards of beauty and how we value other people tied to such considerations on her song “Pretty Eyes.” There is an unsettling but strangely alluring quality to the song as it sketches the ways people dissect the flaws of others and then decide what they find attractive and in the end discard the same people who can never, as real life humans, live up to the image, the fantasy, another person forms in their mind. The minimal bell tones and even more spare percussion, Czita’s darkly whimsical vocal delivery, the buzzy background melody and touches of synth give a spaciousness that feels like an emotional distancing connected to a paradoxical desire for the object of attraction. The song has a creepy edge but also otherworldly like a pop song for a Lucky McKee film. It’s Czita’s first single and promises a future of decidedly different, imaginative and boundary-pushing pop music. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Czita at any of the links below.

czitamusic.com
soundcloud.com/czitamusic
open.spotify.com/artist/40yYGiGlCiRcNj6v6Zd5bQ
instagram.com/czitamusic

“Saturday Eyes” by Inner Oceans is a Deeply Nostalgic Song About Honoring Loves Lost Without Trying to Live in the Past

InnerOceans2_sm — Inner Oceans, photo courtesy the artist

Though the tone of the new Inner Oceans single “Saturday’s Eyes” is one of melancholic nostalgia it’s misty melodies are anchored in early morning mind-wandering. The way the song builds into a gentle flow of emotions and imagery suggests indulging moments when you can look back fondly on a time when you had a love or a time in your life that retains that kind of feeling when things seemed bright and easy and open. But it’s more. The song also expresses how even if that time and those relationships are gone you can revisit them and honor the experience and allow it to illuminate your life in the present rather than surrender to the conceit that things were always better way back when. The accompanying music video was shot on an iPhone during the final year of songwriter and singer Griffith Snyder’s marriage which brings to pairing of song and image a poignancy and presumably a refreshing generosity of spirit and not just the ache and hurt feelings that are in many songs made in the wake of the dissolution of a relationship. Snyder has been writing affecting and adventurous pop music for years and this is the latest in a string of worthwhile releases. Watch the video below and follow Inner Oceans at he links provided.

soundcloud.com/inneroceans
open.spotify.com/artist/1u7T9riTxt6jCQsZTJX6nR

Rum for Breakfast’s Video for “Shoot You Down” is Like a Horror Short Without the Horrific Ending

RumForBreakfast1_sm — Rum for Breakfast, photo courtesy the artist

Rum for Breakfast’s “Shoot You Down” has some jangle and some psychedelia with a tinge of that idiosyncratic/eclectic folk rock of early Beck. Able yet unusual vocal harmonies, electric and acoustic instrumentation and a “Gimme Shelter”-esque dynamic apex. Which makes the video all the more mysterious with a character wearing a full head mask that could be a dog with no eyes. And that would be strange enough but the quality of the video is reminiscent of one of the segments of the V/H/S horror anthology series. Except this one like a horror short done by by Duplass Brothers Productions—odd but not inherently dark though suggestive of a serial killer’s video diary but one with more a surreal sense of humor than nefarious intentions. It could be disturbing but paired with the song’s charming melody it seems simply eccentric and we could certainly use more of that in a world where standardization and conformity is strongly encouraged. Watch the video and judge for yourself and follow Rum for Breakfast at the links below.

rumforbreakfast.com
soundcloud.com/rumforbreakfastrfb
facebook.com/rumforbreakfast
instagram.com/rumforbreakfast_

Colour of the Jungle’s Spirited “Steel Tray” is an Anthem to Weathering the Storm of Life’s Everyday Entropy

ColourOfTheJungle1_sm — Colour of the Jungle, photo courtesy the artists

“Steel Tray” by Colour of the Jungle starts off like a full list of examples of not being able to get a break from everyday setbacks and ailments while being assured it’s all normal. But Jack Evans’ voice makes it obvious that he’s on the edge from having to struggle and strive with every little thing from a stone in his show, being prescribed multiple meds with side effects that seem only slightly less worse than life without them, stubbing his toe and dreams in tatters in the face of mundane issues like not enough time and not feeling up to handling everything thrown your way every day and out of explanations for your litany of failings and shortcomings. But there’s a spirited energy to the song that in spite of all the flak that the fact of still being alive has to mean something even if its that for now you’re able to wade through the entropy that you shrugged off more easily in the past. Though the band is from the UK it sounds like they spent a whole lot of time listening to American Midwest rock and roll from places like Memphis and Cincinnati where bands on the Goner imprint and The Afghan Whigs wax poetic poetic about life’s rough and tumble times while writing impassioned and gritty music as a method of self-therapy. Listen to “Steel Tray” on Soundcloud and follow Colour of the Jungle at the links below.

www.facebook.com/colourofthejungle
www.instagram.com/colourofthejungle
twitter.com/Colourojungle

Orions Belte’s Playful Cover of “Cherchez La Ghost” by Ghostface Killa is the Sound of Mischief Afoot

OrionsBelte1_sm — Orions Belte, photo courtesy the artists

In covering “Cherchez La Ghost” by Ghostface Killah from his 2000 album Supreme Clientele, Orions Belte have funked it up a little more but maintained its unusual rhythms. The guitar is more present and not as spidery, the keyboard more in the realm of mimicking Bernie Worrell at his most minimal. But all tasteful with flourishes of playfully warping the musical lines a bit. Like the original it’s well under three minutes but in that time the track goes through some changes suggestive of its pairing with visual narrative. The eccentric and whimsical quality of his cover sounds like something out of a Judd Apatow movie yet to be like a sequel to Super Bad as the song suggests that some mischief born of restlessness is potentially at hand. The cover will be released on July 12 when the group releases its Slim EP on Jansen Records. Listen below and further explore Orions Belte’s musical hijinks at the links following.

soundcloud.com/jansenrecords
orionsbelte.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/orionsbelte

warm nights Take You on a Journey to the Deep Places of the Heart on “cave dawnings”

warm_nights1_sm — warm nights, image courtesy the artists

Is “cave dawnings,” the title of the single by Los Angeles experimental rock band warm nights, a reference to Plato’s “Parable of the Cave” in a way? Because it certainly seems to be about coming to realizations from a place of personal darkness with hushed tones to impassioned heights a more active pace before ending on a not of streaming off into the distance having reached the escape velocity of one’s own personal gravity of emotional funk. The realization also comes in the form of self-honesty in admitting love for another despite the inevitable complexities that lay ahead of the initial, simple, non-logical impulse to love. In the end the narrator of embraces the totality of the experience as something shared. It is, refreshingly, not a simple love song where the act of falling in love is a redemptive experience that always seems to place the burden of things not being ideal the whole time on one person or another with a need to place blame or find fault as a pretext for splitting and going with someone “better.” It is a song that is both melodramatic and realistic at once, a rarity in rock music or any music. Sonically, fans of early 2000s post-emo indie rock will appreciate the expressive guitar work and dual vocals complimenting and providing counterpoint but warm nights is an inherently adventurous group of songwriters and its recently released album all inside takes you through some fascinating changes. Listen on Spotify and follow warm nights at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/59XKrXxXIRhsWfGFkETnjv
warmnights.bandcamp.com/album/all-inside