SubmitHub – Page 96 – Queen City Sounds and Art

1st Base Runner’s Video for “Dark Drive Through The Canyon” is Like a Deep Mood Michael Mann Film in Miniature

1st Base Runner, photo courtesy the artist

1st Base Runner’s “Dark Drive Through The Canyon” is perhaps best experienced by watching the music video directed by Dilly Gent. In the video Tim Husmann from the project sits high on a box inside a convertible while driving around Long Beach told to remain absolutely still despite the cold and having just filmed the underwater music video for “Man Overboard” earlier the same day. It suits the lush and dramatic ambiance of the song and we see Husmann in focus as a nightscape and evening lights and daytime views stream by behind him out of focus and mixing up our own sense of time. Like a short Michael Mann film with the industrial part of Long Beach and its harbor and highways as the backdrop. The cascading, bright tones fading out in sequence swimming in a breeze of dim light drone are cinematic in quality themselves but in context of the video it creates a meaning and a mood we recognize in taking a moment to contemplate a peaceful core of our mind even as events and a dystopian state of the world streams by that we can and will have to engage with at some point but from which we can take a break now and then for moments of Zen. Watch the video on YouTube and follow 1st Base Runner at the links below.

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Snailbones’ Caustic and Jagged “Dead Inside” Has the Same Scrappy and Irreverent Spirit of Classic Chicago Noise Rock

Snailbones is from Portland, Oregon but from jump “Dead Inside” sounds like the trio has been steeped in Chicago noise rock and early post-punk hardcore. Think Shellac (and of course Big Black), Articles of Faith, Naked Raygun and more recently Meat Wave. That angular, caustic guitar sound and scrappy spirit that made a lot of the aforementioned so compelling. And yes, the group has had some of its music mastered at Electrical Audio in Chicago with some tracks done by Bob Weston and Snailbones plans to record with Steve Albini in March 2023. So those bonafides check out. But none of that wouldn’t matter if music didn’t measure up. “Dead Inside” is almost accusatory in tone regarding the source of what leads to feeling dead inside and the song dynamics go beyond choppy, cutting, mutant punk aggression. The lyric lines and the music paired with it sound like they’ve been rough cut and stretched out with the jagged places left in place so that the potential danger hangs in every moment. Listen to “Dead Inside” on Spotify and follow Snailbones at the links below.

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Snailbones on YouTube

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Penkowski Find the Weirdest Route Out of the Perilous and Depressing State of the World in the Psychedelic Music Video for New Wave Post-punk Song “Butterfly”

Penkowski has a few delightful tricks up its sleeve on its single “Butterfly.” Not only is the music video a wildly colorful, part animation, part collage art 3D explorer video game style visual presentation but the clipped riffing opening the song is like something out of the New York No Wave era like something you’d hear in a Contortions or Bush Tetras song but then the song shifts abruptly into a more elevated pop post-punk mode like the early 90s solo David Byrne work. But the whole time one is reminded of 80s New Wave with the slinky bass line and Falco-esque near yelping vocal cadence reflecting an age of absurdity and anxiety but in the outro we see our hero riding on a plane out of the phantastical and disorienting landscape on the wing of a plane, making the best of the outrageous state of things, whilst the guitar becomes more ethereal and spidery like the ending section of “Marquee Moon.” The song touches on some familiar places and yet is not like much of anything else going on right now and that’s what makes the song so standout. Watch the video for “Butterfly” on YouTube, connect with Penkowski at the links below and maybe give a listen to the album Final Destination Disneyland out now on Fiasko ltd. and Chinese label Invisible Water.

Penkowski on Instagram

fiasko.ltd

Sweet Tempest Coaxes Us Out of Our Emotional Ruts With the Entrancing Melodies of “Love And Motown”

In “Love And Motown” Sweet Tempest tap into an emotional resonance reminiscent of a synth pop disco. Fans of TR/ST, Perfume Genius and Purity Ring will appreciate the way Sweet Tempest uses thoroughly enveloping melodies to fuse nostalgia with immediacy. And for this song the duo gives us a tale of dissociation, isolation and a yearning for connection despite having learned the habits of finding self-entertainment and needing no one. But it’s just a mode of being and like anything that gets to be a groove in our brains we can derail that trajectory by taking chances even if the can disrupt the delicate balance we’ve built in our lives. Sweet Tempest with its swarm of gently uplifting melodies suggests to us as delicately as possible that emotional complacency may be comfortable in its way but it isn’t as satisfying as genuine connection. Listen to “Love And Motown” on Spotify and follow Sweet Tempest at the links provided.

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Kurt Uenala and David Gahan Manifest a Darkly Ambient Tone Poem Meditation on Existential Uncertainty in “G.O.D.”

Producer and composer Kurt Uenala noticed over the years one of Depeche Mode frontman David Gahan’s rituals of jotting down words in a notebook. He wondered what Gahan had written down but never really inquired. That is until one day while checking in with the singer during lockdown Uenala asked and Gahan revealed that the notes were thoughts, feelings and observations he had no intention of sharing with anyone. That set in motion a project for which Gahan sent Uenala a recording of him reciting lines from one of those notebooks and in the studio the producer set up a synth to react to input in the timbre of Gahan’s voice whether the actual voice or background noise. The ultimate result of which was a series of recordings that have been assembled as the Manuscript EP. The track “G.O.D.” sounds darkly mysterious with a generative wave of distorted, lingering swells with Gahan sounding desolated and echoing slightly in the mix, ragged and as though he has exhausted any desperation or despair and merely looking for any signs from a caring universe and perhaps finding none. Sweeps of white noise in a haze of tone washes away those existential moments leaving the question unresolved yet not without an acceptance that one may never get the answer. It’s a little like a tone poem but also a melding of ambient music and spare, soul rippling poetry and honestly one of the most fascinating pieces of music with which Gahan and at this point long time collaborator Uenala have produced. Listen to “G.O.D.” on YouTube and follow Kurt Uenala at the links below.

Kurt Uenala on Instagram

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The Beguiling Siren Song of fhae’s “love you” is a Gorgeous Lure to Cosmic Doom

The ghostly drones and ethereal vocals of “love you” by fhae sounds like something out of a future Ari Aster film. The sound of a processed cello drawing out a low end arc as other strings seem to whirl around in slow motion and a voice singing in Elizabeth Fraser-esque otherworldliness about an eternal and possessive love has an undeniable beauty and allure but of a similar quality one might expect in a supernatural horror story in which the things and people you are most drawn turn out to be a lure to your cosmic doom. And yet there is no denying the exquisite composition and craft in bringing together the underlying menace and transcendently gorgeous sounds that make the song so beguiling and effective. Listen to “love you” on YouTube and follow fhae at the links below.

fhae on Instagram

fhae on 4000 Records

Pacifico Evokes a Deep Sense of Melancholic Acceptance on Indiepop Single “Afterglow”

Matthew Schwartz of Pacifico, photo by Mike Dunn for Rust + Rebel

There’s something comforting about the mix of stop motion, paper collage and animation of Pacifico’s video for “Afterglow.” The tendely psychedelic chamber pop song is about someone who is losing their sight but who seems to accept the limitations and memories of how things looked prior. It’s in a way a metaphor for someone who has come to terms with not really being up to date with how the world is and not quite apprehending the changes and puts some trust in the perceptions of those who are more with the times and not falling back on ego and insisting things are the way they once saw and understood them to be. This acceptance of the limitations of one’s life and not ego-pushing is paired well with the beautiful acoustic guitar work and quietly luminous vocals and string arrangements that sound both melancholic and at peace, which can be contradictory emotional states but Pacifico makes it work. Watch the video for “Afterglow” on YouTube and follow Pacifico on Instagram. Look out for the new Pacifico album Self Care out 02/10/2023 on Pacifirecords.

Zeki Releases the Anxieties of the Waking Hours Into the Cosmos in the Video for “Astroplaning”

Zeki’s visualizer for “Astroplaning” delivers more than a little on the title. A blue figure representing the astral body of a sleeping figure astral projects around the world to the Sphinx and to outer space. And dense synth pulses like a day glow bass line marks time with the percussion as the strained vocals outline the ways in which we often feel isolated and in the case of our narrator the manner in which he tries to get the attention he craves by becoming an entertainer. Musically it’s a little like a synthwave Dose One track with a bit more angst and desperation in the vocals fitting regarding a song that seems to be a litany of anxiety that in the end relents just a little as the astral body in the video settles back into the physical body which wakes to the face the morning sun. Its a song that leaves you feeling like something happened to ease out the nerve wracking clutter of the mind through the sheer freedom of being able to use the imagination to undertake a mysterious journey into the cosmos and back. Watch the video for “Astroplaning” on YouTube and follow Zeki at the links below.

Zeki on Instagram

Zeki on Apple Music

Listen to Plasma Canvas’ Earworm Emo Punk Love Anthem “Need” Ahead of the Release of the New Album DUSK

“Need” begins with a typically melodic earworm riff from Plasma Canvas. And when Adrienne Rae Ash’s vocals come in there’s an earnest soulfulness that pairs well with the emotional urgency of the song’s lyrics and exuberant performances. Plasma Canvas has long been adept at completely fusing strong songcraft rooted in emo, punk and classic rock. But for this song a simple concept is stretched out into an epic about love and yearning, self-forgiveness and being open to learning about one’s deepest needs that can remain hidden from you without the help of others. And never once does it overstay its welcome, instead it pulls you into the eddy of the gravity of its sentiments that are the subject of endless rock and roll and emo songs except here the gloriously indulgent and infectious guitar solos and bombast is given the perfect amount of nuance in a line like “Give me what I need, show me what I need” as an admission that you never have everything figured out, you don’t know everything even when you’re swept up in the fervor of love. Listen to “Need” on Spotify, connect with Fort Collins, Colorado’s Plasma Canvas at the links below and pre-order the new album DUSK on vinyl which releases on February 17, 2023 along with releated merch on SideOneDummy Records.

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Pharmacist’s Harrowing and Noisy Post-punk Single “Calculated Violence” is a Poignant Take on Psychological Abuse

Pharmacist spins a dark tale of manipulation and abuse in the harrowing and noisy passages of “Calculated Violence.” It begins with a splintering and distorted bass line and female vocals that sound like the narrative is being recalled some months and years down the line with the agony and psychological pain coming crashing in and well up all at once in dramatic waves. As the song progresses guitar comes in more as a vehicle for creating texture and noise like a mind becoming fractured and recovering with a desperate energy. In the last half of the song All sounds, percussion, bass, tortured guitar, vocals finally releasing the tension in cathartic, wordless utterances writhe around together upward and collide into the menacing outro. The line “there’s a calculated violence in everything you do” spells out succinctly the dynamic of someone who seems supportive and kind in the beginning of a relationship who gaslights you until you’ve lost your way until an abrupt and almost violent realization snaps you out of that spell and you find out what your real value was to the abuse. The closing line “The only thing that I can think is when you wish that I was dead” is stated almost matter-of-factly it’s chilling. Musically it’s in the realm of post-punk/art punk and noise rock but the execution and style is much more original than one might expect from mere genre tags. Think more Live Skull and Sonic Youth more than darkwave. Pharmacist is hitting upon a particularly creative and potent phase of its songwriting with its new set of releases. Listen to “Calculated Violence” and other tracks from the Swedish band on Spotify and follow the act at the links below.

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