SubmitHub – Page 7 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Jennie Gillespie Mason Presents Human Love as a Path to Higher Consciousness on Psychedelic Folk Song “Rungs of Love”

Jennie Gillespie Mason, photo courtesy the artist

Jennie Gillespie Mason weaves together an entrancing tapestry of sounds on her single “Rungs of Love.” The track from her forthcoming new album Safety of the Light (out 6/12/26 via Native Cat Recordings) has as its root a kind of folk vocals and guitars sound in the classic mode but more inspired by more experimental leaning practitioners of the art like Bert Jansch and Vashti Bunyan. Mason also puts electronic sounds into the song and orchestral strings so that it feels like you’re listening in on entire other world. Blips shimmer and spark off like a lightning bug into the night or a shooting star suddenly bursting overhead and fading out. The song is about love as a path to higher consciousness and one to be savored in the moment. As gentle and romantic a spirit as one hears in the song it also dares to veer off into psychedelic sounds without losing sight of its core emotional resonance and that itself serves well the song’s message of being grounded in human experience while in pursuit of personal transformation. Listen to “Rungs of Love” on Spotify at follow Jenny Gillespie Mason on Instagram.

The Wheel Workers’ Brightly Atmospheric Indie Pop Single “Rainbows” is a Song About Reclaiming Joy From an Oppressive Culture

The Wheel Workers, photo by Daniel Jackson

Maybe titling he song “Rainbows” The Wheel Workers are giving away that the tender sentiments of the love song is one also about LGBTQ+ identity and self-acceptance. It is also a completely apt name for the song. Its gentle melodies in a sort of psychedelic pop mode are also reminiscent of the exquisite melodies of early 80s Ultravox and the earnestness of The Alarm’s more anthemic songs. The lead guitar melody paired with the vocal harmonies feels like a collective collective uplift like the band has written a song that goes beyond expressing deep affection and a sense of liberation and resistance to oppression for one person but a statement for everyone that has felt the boot of a conservative cultural orientation that denies many people their basic humanity and the ability to be who they are without judgment. Watch the live performance video for “Rainbow” on YouTube and follow The Wheel Workers at the links provided.

The Wheel Workers on Facebook

The Wheel Workers on TikTok

The Wheel Workers on Instagram

The Wheel Workers on Bandcamp

Mock Media Sheds Light on the Narratives Working Against One’s Happiness on Power Pop Single “Rat Bastard”

Mock Media’s title track to its new album Rat Bastard (out now via Mac’s Record Label) sounds like the band is tapping into a combination of early 80s power pop and a bit of The Clash with the anthemic choruses. The clear melodies and crisp rhythms help the song’s story of low self esteem and issues of class getting in the way of love and genuine connection and how one’s life narratives can blind you to possibilities and chances to get out of a situation you resent and so you act out those frustrations on the people who might be good for you and work against your own potential joy. It’s a complicated dynamic in real life and it’s been the subject of rock and roll songs going back decades but here Mock Media brings clarity to a messy reality that many people know with a simple song that honors the conflicted feelings. Listen to “Rat Bastard” on YouTube and follow Mock Media at the links below.

Mock Media on Instagram

Mock Media on Bandcamp

Mock Media on Apple Music

NESYA’s “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” Should be the R&B Darkwave Electronic Dance Club Hit of the Summer

NESYA’s “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” dissolves any lines between pop R&B, darkwave, post-punk and electronic dance music. The video shows the artist looking like a subversive figure broadcasting with equipment that intentionally distorts and partly vertically pixellates her image. It’s the perfect aesthetic for a song that turns attempts at oppression and narrow othering on their head while point out truths about how attempting to erase the inconvenient doesn’t eliminate them or really push them into the background except as a presence that erodes the illusion of power. Musically at times it’s reminiscent of Boy Harsher, Alice Glass and the newer era of Sextile. But NESYA’s vocals are uniquely her own, soulful and even a little spooky in a way that boosts the emotional resonance of the music. It’s a song that should appear on the playlist of every Goth night this summer and beyond. Watch the video for “PUT THE FRIES IN THE BAG” on YouTube and follow NESYA at the links below.

NESYA on TikTok

NESYA on Instagram

NESYA on Apple Music

Fan Girl’s Noisy Slowcore Single “Worth It?” is a Song About Emotional Disconnect and Quiet Devatation

Fan Girl released the 8HRS EP (out April 24, 2026) marking its more extended offering since reconvening several years back in the wake of the tragic 2018 death of founding member Jack Wood. The lead single “Worth It?” begins somber with quiet but emotional vocals, a simple piano figure and harmonic drones in the background like distant city lights to accompany the existential sentiments expressed in the song. The song sounds like someone going over a moment of disconnect with a loved one where it feels like it might be through or is in serious danger and our narrator is not ready to just let go and looking for some kind of confirmation. Musically the song begins in a melancholic, slowcore mode but ramps up to a noisier piece in the final quarter to reflect some of the anguish that lead up to the soul weary part in the beginning but perhaps most interesting the last ten seconds or so of the song we hear a sound like static sputtering out from a radio station that is going off broadcasting status for good. It speaks volumes in a way that makes the rest of the song sound hopeful, a quiet bit of devastation that not many bands would attempt. Listen to “Worth It?” on Spotify and follow the Australian band Fan Girl at the links below.

Fan Girl on Facebook

Fan Girl on Instagram

Jeki’s Sultry Neo Soul Single “Hold On” Coaxes Us to Be Kind To Ourselves and Live Rather Than Strive

Jeki’s lush and sultry single “Hold On” taps into the sonic realms of neo-soul with a touch of downtempo. Her vocals are vibrant and establish a leisurely pace as she sings with affectionate compassion for a loved one who is struggling with how treacherous life can seem when everything feels frustrating and there is no clear path to doing what you want with your life and not enough experiences confirming which path is best. But Jeki’s lyrics gently point out that sometimes it just takes time and we can’t always know what is for us and where we fit in with the world right away and sometimes it just takes patience and not trying to force what we think we know. The bass line is understated in a jazz style and the keyboard melodies swirl and drift off and echo ever so slightly while Jeki’s voice anchors the song in a direct human experience with a warm confidence that really does hit like everything is going to be okay if we don’t succumb to the accelerated pace of living forced on us by our society and often our culture. Jeki seems to suggest that living is more important than striving. Listen to “Hold On” on Spotify and follow Jeki at the links provided.

The Dead Century Offers a Refreshing Take on the Breakup Song on Impassioned Power Pop Single “Hey Chicago”

The Dead Century, photo courtesy the artists

The Dead Century on “Hey Chicago” sound like a classic power pop band in the 80s vein. Fortunately that also means crisp guitar sound, great clarity of tone, sonically and emotionally. The song uses the conceit of referring to someone by the city they’re from rather than have to denigrate a specific name or even assign gender. It’s a different take on the breakup song in which our narrator seems to have come to the conclusion that it’s over but doesn’t want to make an assumption that things are finished even if in it’s not officially so. The seemingly endless moments when everything threatened to collapse but didn’t as embodied so well by the lines “And for a minute we can both pretend/We’ve been counting down the seconds to a second chance/To sift through the requisite waiting/For something more stable.” Sometimes something so combustible can seem exciting but in the end can be so exhausting. But our narrator seems to want the decision to draw the relationship to a conclusion to be a mutual thing. The song has great momentum and an sweeping melody until the last minute six when things go quiet for tranquil moments of contemplation before ramping back up and back down to a quick outro of ghostly feedback. The songcraft is impressive and the sentiments don’t demonize anyone which can be rare in this subgenre of pop music. Listen to “Hey Chicago” on Spotify and follow Minneapolis, Minnesota’s The Dead Century at the links provided.

thedeadcentury.com

The Dead Century on Facebook

The Dead Century on Instagram

“After the Masquerade (Refashioned)” Casts Shaela Miller’s Americana Synth Pop Original Into a Vibrant Dark Wave Mode

The remix of Shaela Miller’s “After the Masquerade (Refashioned)” (the title track of her 2024 album) re-imagines the more synth pop song in a darker, almost industrial mode. The beats hit heavier, the vocals echo into more open spaces. Swirls of drone spiral out in slow motion giving a touch of menace to the song but preserved is how Miller’s melodic vocals shine through the cinematic layers of sound. The music video is like a dark cabaret in a cyberpunk future with warm and cool colored layered to dramatic effect book-ended with a clear image of Miller cleaning up the aftermath of a celebration like the messes and only half regrets of one’s life while still being able to look back with a certain romantic fondness for a time despite its mix of memories. If the original was a step toward dark wave from the Americana of her earlier work, this remix even more so. Watch the video for “After the Masquerade” on YouTube and follow Shaela Miller at the links provided. The song is from Refashioned Selex, a five-song remix EP out May 14, 2026 with tracks originally released on the 2024 album After the Masquerade.

shaelamiller.com

Shaela Miller on Facebook

Shaela Miller on Instagram

“Behold!” by Radium88 is Like the Avant-Garde Synthpop Soundtrack to a Retro-Futurist Dystopian Novel

“Behold!” the opening track of Radium88’s new album Beauty is Lies (released April 4, 2026) feels like a trip back to an alternative dimension where turn of the 80s Hawkwind, early Eurhythmics and Legendary Pink Dots are the soundtrack to children’s shows and public television documentaries. The song brings together analog percussion sounds, bell tones, measured drum machine rhythms and dream like synth drone melodies in a manner that is transporting and soothing to the mind. The vocals are like a spoken piece from book of poetry crafted for a lost classic of retro-futurist science fiction. The song indeed feels like the intro to music for such a work that would bear comparison to the output of Alan Moore and Gene Wolfe. In general the song hits like finding a time capsule with a message for the future during a time of oppression and widespread, imposed austerity. The rest of the album does not disappoint in the richness of tone and a sustained sense of wonder. Listen to “Behold!” on YouTube and follow Nottingham, UK’s Radium88 at the links below.

Radium88 on Twitter

Radium88 on Facebook

Radium88 on Instagram

Radium88 on Bandcamp

Lukka Celebrates the Multitudes Within Each of Us on Psychedelic Synth Pop Single “Tomboi”

Lukka perfectly accents the rhythms of synth pop single “Tomboi.” The melodious and breathy vocals seem to invoke the embrace of different sides of oneself within and the virtues and unique qualities attendant to them. In particular the unification of masculine and feminine inside everyone as a product of superficially disparate elements coming together to produce a new human entity. The song’s effervescent and vibrant energy feels like a celebration of that acknowledgment and acceptance of how each of us contains multitudes that conventional culture conditions us to separate out as if that’s even possible without great effort at suppressing the manifest truth that need not be resisted. The song has some cool funk beats while fully psychedelic in its crafting experimental sounds into a pop song that makes its heady ideas accessible. Listen to “Tomboi” on Spotify and follow Lukka at the links provided.