SubmitHub – Page 34 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Savanna Leigh’s Tender and Vulnerable “reminders of you” is a Song About Being Willing to Really Feel Your Sadness and Hurt Rather Than Run From Them

Savanna Leigh’s warm and breathy vocals on “reminders of you” linger ever so slightly like the memories that seem to trail her like a haunting. Leigh renders these feelings with a resonant familiarity and with a delicacy of expression that doesn’t simply try to process the feelings in that way we all wish we could with some efficiency and finality, to have closure even if that’s not always such a realistic way to operate as a human. Instead, the song is more like feeling those feelings again with an emotional honesty and coming to accept them as not things to be shed or discarded but part of who you are, a part that you can’t simply carve out of your mind but which you can remember and still find emotional energy within even if it doesn’t quite have the power to overwhelm you in the long run as they might if you simply buried them and pretended they didn’t exist. Leigh’s simple arrangement of spare guitar, minimal percussion and piano enhance the songwriter’s tonal richness in a song that with a wide open and vulnerable spirit. Watch the video for “reminders of you” on YouTube and follow Savanna Leigh at the links below.

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Ok Cowgirl Finds Some Absurd Humor in the Existentially Exhausting Grind of the Modern Everyday on Fuzz Pop Song “Larry David”

Don’t be fooled by the whimsical music video for Ok Cowgirl’s “Larry David” in which the band members are made up like the titular, legendary comedy writer and actor. The gloriously effusive guitar solo that comes in the middle of the first half of the song lets off some of the steam of the sentiments expressed in the song, the kind anyone with any level of honesty and sensitivity has felt like everything is, yes, fucked, in everyday life even if you’re living what some might consider a comfortable life though you may be struggling with scrambling to barely get by and dealing with situations to make that happen that push you to the edge and to the breaking point day after day. It wears you out on a deep level. But Ok Cowgirl has turned some of that existential exhaustion into catharsis with the fuzzy guitar pop of this song and making it into a song that can indulge some moments of humor in its evocation of life’s, mundane daily challenges that can grind you down over time. Watch the video for “Larry David” on YouTube and follow Ok Cowgirl at the links below. The band’s new album Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut released on August 16, 2024 and available to stream.

Ok Cowgirl on Instagram

Art d’Ecco Returns With the Vital, Indie Glam Rock Single “I Feel Alive”

Art d’Ecco’s uplifting latest pop offering “I Feel Alive” is as much a declaration of self-liberation as it is a brash celebration of one’s passions. The bold horns, Art’s charged vocals and the scenes from the music video of good times had with dancing and drink feel very of the now but the aesthetics are reminiscent of a combination of late 80s Wang Chung and The Power Station covering T. Rex’s “Get It On.” Art d’Ecco takes that energy and sleazy guitar sound and puts great momentum behind it all for an effect that comes off as genuinely exciting and unapologetically bombastic. After all why downplay when you’re feeling like you’re in the right place, doing the right thing at the right moment in alignment with your heart’s desires? It is truly glam rock for the indie rock set. Watch the video for “I Feel Alive” directed by Michael Makaroff on YouTube and follow Art d’Ecco at the links below.

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Carlos Antonio’s Deep Moods and Vibrant Falsetto on Slowcore Single “Gabriel” Are an Affecting Evocation of a Love Obscured

Carlos Antonio, photo courtesy the artist

“Gabriel” is the title track to Carlos Antonio’s forthcoming debut EP. It’s the story of the songwriter’s relationship with a closeted, Hollywood actor and the their desire for their relationship to be a known quantity and for it to be accepted in a society that continues to reveal itself to generally be, to varying degrees, hostile to such relationships to the point that it can still affect someone’s career and life prospects. The music is lushly orchestrated with delicate and intentional guitar textures providing the more tactile rhythm as background string and electronics melodies help Antonio’s emotionally vibrant and breathy vocals to stand in front in passages of compelling vulnerability that express the intensity of feeling and the frustration of having to keep a cherished relationship more or less hidden because of social pressures even in 2024. Fans of Jeff Buckley and Iron & Wine will appreciate Antonio’s depth of mood, emotional nuance and command of tone. Listen to “Gabriel” on Soundcloud and follow Carlos Antonio at the links provided.

Carlos Antonio on Instagram

Letting Up Despite Great Faults Leans Into Fulfillment Over Comfort on Indiepop Shoegaze Single “Powder”

Letting Up Despite Great Faults, photo courtesy the artists

Letting Up Despite Great Faults delivers its follow up to 2022’s entrancing album IV with Reveries with mixing by Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and mastering by Simon Scott (Slowdive). Lead single “Powder” dips a little into the band’s early days with some playful synth sounds like something one might more hear coming from a reprogrammed Famicom and fans of the long defunct The Depreciation Guild will appreciate the vulnerable sounds and delicacy of orchestration in the song’s melodies and rhythms. Guitar notes linger, electronic motes hit with a percussive quality over the rush of spare percussion. The vocals intone like fragments from a diary placed expertly together to comment on the unease of being in a liminal space in one’s life where you think about how people tell you to give up on anything fun and creative in order to “grow up.” But what about what’s in your heart to do and who would want you to give up what brings more than a fleeting shred of joy into your life? The line “You only love the things pinned to the ground” perfectly expresses how some people relate to those they would aim and profess to love—by controlling them and make them into a static entity. A museum piece of life. The song is about resisting that but also the hint of thinking of succumbing to that spirit diminishing but comfortable status yet in the end leaning heavily toward uncertainty in some areas of life over giving it all up for someone that doesn’t truly value your deep happiness. It’s a lot to pack into two minutes twenty seconds with a rare level of emotional and psychological nuance but Mike Lee and the band have a knack for saying meaningful things with great economy in songs that have great forward and outward momentum. Listen to “Powder” Spotify and follow Austin, TX-based Letting Up Despite Great Faults at the links below. Reveries will become available for streaming, download and on vinyl October 11, 2024.

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Ohr Comforts and Reassures in the Warmly Expansive Psychedelia of Electro Pop Single “Afterglow”

“Afterglow,” the title track from Ohr’s forthcoming album (due out 8/30/24 via Headstate Records) uses vintage electronic sounds and modern production to create something that musically resonates with 90s British, electronically infused, exuberant psychedelia like Primal Scream in the latter half of the decade. But also Currents-period Tame Impala. There’s something celebratory at the core of “Afterglow” and its insistent beat that given its lyrics speaking to not feeling limitations so much but the heat of the momentum of where you’re going and what you’re growing into without completely losing sight of where you’ve been. The warm tones of the song swirl and sparkle throughout and team into the fade in the end. There’s something about the song that gets into your head and ends with feelings of comfort and reassurance which helps it to linger long in the mind. Watch the visualizer video for “Afterglow” on YouTube and follow Ohr at the links below.

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Paul Babe’s Slinky and Entrancing Psychedelic Pop Single “Cliff Diver” has a Video With an All Star Cast

Seth Evans of Paul Babe, photo courtesy the artist

Paul Babe’s video for “Cliff Diver” is shot in a backyard and has cameos from the likes of Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats guitarist Luke Mossman, drummer Carl Sorensen, Rhodes player/vocalist Joseph Lamar, percussionist/singer Jess Parsons, bassist Kramer Kelling and Julia LiBassi on synth and vocals. Of course on lead vocals and guitar is songwriter and band leader Seth Evans. Though Paul Babe is based in Brooklyn, New York, the line up is a handful of Denver (former or current) music luminaries as Evans once fronted the pop band Rossonian while based out of the Mile High City. The song is like a psychedelic funk song in a more mellow and soothing mode with rich vocal harmonies and multiple voices bringing a diverse sound to a song that has an immediate appeal because it’s an entrancing journey that benefits from musical chops that are all channeled into a song about recognizing one’s vulnerabilities and lingering ills and getting to a place of wellness individually and collectively. There is a lightness to the song that uplifts but anchored by coming from a place of earnest emotional expression. What is most obvious from the video that perhaps listening to the song alone is how each musician contributes greatly to the song’s interlacing layers of rhythm and tone to create the kind of song that stays with you not just because it has tasty hooks but because there’s a sense of something bigger to what the song represents beyond being a well-crafted psychedelic pop funk song. Watch the video for “Cliff Diver” on YouTube and follow Paul Babe at the links below.

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Oscar Mic’s Post-Punk Hip-Hop Single “Sun Star” is a Song About Entropy and Romance

The low end pulsing buzz that runs through Oscar Mic’s “Sun Star” is like the constant and menacing influence hinted at the in the song. The lyrics describe an impulse to destruction that seems to run through societies and manifests in individual and collective behaviors like an in practice incarnation of the second law of thermodynamics in which entropy increases until it reaches a maximum state. Vocalist Seamus Hayes seems to describe these primitive urges of human beings in terms of their cognates in cosmic and mythological forces and how interpersonal dynamics can hit your direct experiences with the weight of things much bigger in the world. The backbeat percussion and bass drone from Taan Parker and Rex Erex respectively give Hayes’ playful delivery the context for his more melodic voicings and those more in the realm of rap MC need for the song to hit with both a sweetness and menace. If Beck had been able to collaborate with The Beastie Boys it might have sounded like this. Watch the psychedelic music video directed by Dovile Meilute on YouTube and connect with East London’s Oscar Mic at the links provided. Look out for the trio’s debut album out in 2025.

oscarmicmusic.com

Oscar Mic on Facebook

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Photay’s Ambient Techno Single “Derecho” Pulses With a Hypnotic Inner Light

“Derecho” with its subtle use of white noise as background texture with a foreground of hazy synths and percussive sounds in non-standard rhythms finds Photay in music time traveling mode well served by the music video. We see arrows in motion in arcs and in a spiral with luminous ripples to demonstrate the percussion all in luminous colors against darker backdrops both black and deep, vibrant blue. The visuals pair the aesthetic of a 1990s VHS video art piece and the library music-esque tone of the song itself. It creates a fairly playful mood that immerses the listener in textures and organic rhythms like an update of early 2010s minimal techno and deep house. While the song is not dance music it inspires a similar emotional response. The song is from Photay’s new album Windswept out on streaming, download and vinyl September 20, 2024 via Mexican Summer. The record was inspired in part by the sound of wind and the flow of the music has that kind of familiarity and spontaneity that makes it a refreshing listen even with the beneficially weird places it goes.

CATBEAR’s Buoyant Synthpop Single “Rush” is a Song About Finding the Sustained Impetus to Living in the Moment

CATBEAR’s appropriately titled “Rush” has real momentum behind its vulnerable and irresistible melodies. It’s a song about being in the moment, in older parlance of being in the zone, when you feel engaged and filled up with the emotional energy that feels vital and infuses every moment with a sense of purpose and excitement. Many things can inspire these feelings (being in love, feeling like you’re in the right place at the right time in life, a stretch when things seem to be going just right for you) but whatever it is it uplifts one’s spirit and makes having motivation feel effortless. It is the opposite of being depressed without being in a manic mode. The band’s use of sweeps and accented tones over a propulsive yet minimal beat makes the song reminiscent of a mid-80s synth pop song except rather than an excessive guitar solo pulls an almost spoken word line to add a moment of dramatic seriousness that helps to provide contrast and makes the music on either side of it shine even brighter. Interestingly though the song is about, yes, a rush of feeling the band reigns in musical excess in favor of a focus that really gives the song its consistently impactful boost. Listen to “Rush” on Spotify and follow London’s CATBEAR at the links below.