Subtmithub – Queen City Sounds and Art

Charm School Casts Off Fake Generational Cultural Inheritance on Noisy Post-Punk Single “Simulacra”

Charm School, photo by Destiny Robb @allfunk

Charm School seems to have tapped into a well of influence on the angular and splayed dynamics of “Simulacra” that includes both The Fall and Pere Ubu and more modern No Wave-esque post-punkers Lithics and Protomartyr. The steady bass line carries the lifeblood pulse of the song on a slow arc of tonality. Guitar spikes and quick echo fades off like the musical equivalent of splashes of garish color on a white background. At other times the guitar provides a haunted melody before transforming back into a more mechanistic sound. The drums frame it all with rapid fills and moments of sustained texture. All as enhancements of a song that seems like pointed commentary no the youth culture of today and the context in which it emerged in a fractured and dissolving political monolith like “the skittish empire of the ‘United’ States/trying to make haste to eliminate each other.” The lyrics mention the counterfeit endless copies of everything being peddled as something to be excited about and the counterfeit personal gestures and aspirations that serve as a psychological and civilizational feedback loop to nowhere. But the closing line of these litanies “But I’m not listening” suggests the option of rejecting the foundations of these ersatz choices which was as Greil Marcus said over the course of his classic 1989 book Lipstrick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century one of the great contributions of punk as passed down from the Situationists and their spiritual and philosophical ancestors. But here it sounds like a knowing way to call all the hullabaloo about nothing real a load of nonsense no one needs to take seriously. Listen to “Simulacra” on Spotify and follow Charm School from Louisville, Kentucky at the links below. The band’s EP Finite Jest, which as a title speaks much and more succinctly clever than it has a right to be, released on July 21, 2023.

Charm School on Bandcamp

Charm School on Instagram

Media House’s Vulnerable Dream Pop Single “Maybe” Encourages Us to Re-examine Our Entrenched and Self-Destructive Habits of Mind

Media House’s “Maybe” sounds like the cycling guitar part with a touch of chorus and tremolo to give it a bit of a resonant shimmer is like something out of a music box. That is if such a device included a more complicated expansion as the song progresses. But that kind of repetition like a sample to establish the reflective mood of the lyrics. It’s a song that sounds like it was written alone with the vocalist looping parts and bringing them all together in the end to augment a song that seems to be about reconsidering one’s choices and how some of them can have a cumulative negative impact on others and thus one’s own. The line “Maybe there’s a price to pay when everyone is gone” is the most telling because many people really do think they can do it all alone and don’t need anyone else but that’s sheer foolishness as a human being. Then “Maybe there’s another way to go about this life” suggests that perhaps what we think we know about ourselves and our life isn’t the best way and it will leave us confused when we drive people away without meaning to because ego can bring you to think how you are and how you behave is best. Without being obvious this delicate, almost dream pop song offers a gracious way out of being so stubborn and attached to ways that don’t serve your best interests by beginning most of the lines of lyrics with the word “maybe” and the various dimensions of one’s life conceptions and assumptions about being your authentic self that may be outmoded. Listen to “Maybe” on Spotify and follow Seattle’s Media House at the links below.

Media House on Facebook

Media House on Instagram

https://soundcloud.com/user-726857672-519089547

This is a Revolver Gives Voice to Modern Agonized Existential Malaise on Psychedelic Punk Song “Stir Crazy”

This is a Revolver, photo courtesy the artists

This is a Revolver really nails a sense of desperation and hopelessness on “Stir Crazy.” The song reflects members of the band’s recent experience with COVID-19 and having to quarantine for a few weeks but takes that a step further into existential territory and injects that immediate mood with a touch of dark euphoria that seems to come with knowing you’ve tried all the solutions presented to you by experts and friends. When the lyrics mention “barely getting by” and being “busted from the brain down” that could be modern life in general and a very understandable and relatable reaction to a situation that doesn’t look like it’s getting better and the generalized anxiety that extends from there. In the music video the band’s vocalist looks to be meeting experiences in a prolonged state of duress while pointing out how she’s “seen a doctor” and “seen a priest” and read the kinds of books people say are going to fix what ails you, tried to use magic of the naturalistic kind of otherwise and taken the pills that are supposed to put things right. But there are situations that our culture and society hasn’t done so great at addressing including the pandemic as we pretend it’s over when you hear about people in your circle of family and friends getting COVID for the first time even now. And the sound of of This Is A Revolver’s psychedelic and borderline deathrock song is the embodiment of that agonized malaise. Watch the video for “Stir Crazy” on YouTube and follow This is a Revolver at the links below.

This is a Revolver on TikTok

This is a Revolver on Instagram

Springworks Gives us a Friendly and Fun Nudge to Get Off Our Collective Duff in “Pulsar”

Springworks pairs well the song “Pulsar” with an unusual and imaginative music video. The song is reminiscent of some particularly ebullient pop tune from the 90s era of the Elephant 6 collective. A breezy pace, upbeat rhythms that sweep you along while a hypnotic shifting keyboard sequence running through the song keeps things colorful. The vocal harmonies are subtle and sweet while conveying a message of encouragement not to let your anxieties, perhaps it’s a message to the songwriters too, and momentary fears overwhelm your ability to look up and look forward. Because sometimes we really need someone, mostly ourselves, to nudge us over the hill of emotional resistance to doing the things we want to do but for some reason have lost the momentum to get going. The video includes what looks like old medical school or public programming footage of heart surgery, nothing too dire, just interesting, some 1950s travel documentary reels and all interspersed with images of the celestial objects per the song title illustrating where to keep your attention and of course a pular appears to pump light like a heart does blood making the visual metaphor more clever and obvious than one might expect. A particularly nice detail in the video is after the line about how one should “let the monkeys fly off your back” there is a bit of a film of a chimpanzee rapidly striking a xylophone. The song is like a regular chain of musical and visual Easter eggs for the attentive listener/viewer. Watch the video for “Pulsar” on YouTube and connect with Springworks at the links provided.