Jobs make a toast, Gaspard Eden cooks up pancakes, Dirty Projectors show off their new designs, Dirty Clergy deal with whiplash and more in a very vibrant Thursday Roundup. Today I learned that I know someone who is a Certified Crystal Healer. Thank heavens. There’s nothing worse than those fly-by-night, rogue Crystal Healers, you know?
VIDEOS OF THE DAY
1 | Jobs | A Toast
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The video for A Toast, directed by and starring Nina Vroeman, is a colorful, jittery, and jello-filled dreamscape, paired so excellently with the dissociative sonic narration that can only come from a band as curious as Jobs. Electronic drums and agile keyboards join a narrator bringing forth a type of mission statement: “we are here to bring you music.” A statement from Jobs: “People! Inhabitants! Sphere! Drums! Jobs is here to bring you music. Today we have released our new single A Toast. We see through your wealthy games. Fuck games. Fuck your center. I am desperately trying to be told to calm down.I am desperately trying to need to calm down. I have been socialized to be romantic. I have been socialized to be violent. I have been socialized to see violence as romantic. Fuck super soakers. Violence is romanticized. Militarized violence is romanticized. Violence done to the planet is romanticized. A public romance. A masculine romance. Stop. We push for actions that build a present where all are valued as opulent fields. This must be brought about through all spheres, through all instruments. We bring music, and a video.”
2 | Gaspard Eden | Pancakes
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Quebec’s Gaspard Eden shares his new video Pancakes. A glorious nostalgia inducing clay animation video of your favourite childhood TV, Pancakes is directed by tattoo artist Phil Berge, who found himself dabbling with plasticine and clay animation during COVID 19. The result is a colourful ’90s revival, reminiscent of shows like Wallace and Gromit, Pingu and Soupe Opera. Pancakes is taken from Gaspard Eden’s forthcoming album Soft Power. Eden says, ” There is definitely a romantic / nostalgic aspect to the idea behind the video, for everybody who worked on that project grew up in the nineties, ended up having their childhood stimulated with a lot of clay animations playing on the TV. I remember going through my dad’s Beta tapes collection as a kid, binge watching California Raisins episodes and being fascinated by its textures and colors, which in fact many years later still amaze me. I think it was kind of a big thing for the era, and indirectly became part of its aesthetic. Digging a little deeper in the history of the medium we came up with artists such as Bruce Bickford as references and fell in love with the aesthetic. Through the meticulous work of artist Phil Berge, he managed to craft that colorful and amusing early ’90s revival, a piece of art in my opinion, and really took me by surprise with its instinctive and creative scenario.”
3 | Dirty Projectors | Self Design
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Dirty Projectors share Flight Tower, the second of five EPs they’re releasing in 2020. Helmed by keyboardist-percussionist Felicia Douglass — with songwriting, production, engineering and mixing from Dave Longstreth — the four songs of Flight Tower deliver a super-future sound both soulful and electronic. Resolute in the mantra that rhythm is a dancer, this is deep new Projectors for deep new times. Watch the brand new music video for Self Design, glitching and pulsating along to a groove that samples Harry Belafonte’s Dolly Dawn and Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
4 | The Dirty Clergy | Whiplash
THE PRESS RELEASE: “With 2020 marking a decade into their musical careers The Dirty Clergy vacillates between shoegaze-esque ruminations on love and struggle and more straightforward garage numbers that surge into ecstatic cacophony all accented by eerily laconic vocals, The Alabama-based trio (featuring vocalist/guitarist Brian Manasco, bassist Ky Carter and drummer Cody Moorehead) are looking to expand their already respectable discography with their upcoming full-length, the aptly titled In Waves. “Everything was different because we had a different lineup,” Manasco recalls. “I wrote all of the new songs and when we started rehearsals, the former singer had wanted to rewrite the lyrics. But we had already recorded all of the music. I was then talking to Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonestown Massacre and he said ‘tell that dude to hit the road.’ And Les was aware of all this stuff. I had to go back and redo all of the songs in terms of tempo and key to accommodate a new singer. I was not planning on singing the songs myself, but ultimately I didn’t have a choice.”
5 | Programmable Animal | Backstabber
THE PRESS RELEASE: “As Chicago Industrial Rock/Metal artists Programmable Animal get set to release their new album One Step to Hell later this year, they have released the video for Backstabber, the first song off the album. Backstabber is about those who hurt others for personal gain. Vocalist Drepsea explains why he wrote Backstabber: “I’m tired of the polarization separating us one by one from each other. I’m tired of the liars, cheaters, backstabbers, abusers, narcissists, and everyone causing malevolent actions towards others. I am a product that has been lost, backstabbed, abandoned, deprived, cheated, hurt, haunted, and wronged.. though, I won’t allow that to subjugate me. I will keep on pushing.”
6 | Be Well | Confessional
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Be Well announced their debut full-length album The Weight and The Cost, set for release on Aug. 21. The band is fronted by prolific record producer Brian McTernan (Turnstile, Thrice, Hot Water Music), and includes guitarists Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour) and Peter Tsouras (Fairweather), bassist Aaron Dalbec (Bane), and drummer Shane Johnson (Fairweather). The Weight and The Cost marks McTernan’s unexpected but welcomed return to the other side of the glass. To celebrate the album announcement, the band has shared its first single, Confessional, along with an accompanying music video. Confessional is the album’s final track, and serves as an emotional ode to McTernan’s hopes for his daughter’s future as he works on pulling his own life together. Both optimism and pain are palpable in the song, which serves as an anthem for these isolated times.”
7 | Kid Dad | Limbo
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Kid Dad’s new track Limbo is a song that deals with feeling unsafe, hassled, or even abused. As vocalist and guitarist Marius Vieth says, it’s about being “caught between uncertainty and fear, searching for something real to hold on to, in search of hope.” The band has chosen to convey this in a music video that tells the story of a child trying to escape domestic violence. Part of what initiated this concept was the fact that, due to Covid-19 and the regulations put in place to battle the pandemic, there has been a surge in cases of domestic violence worldwide. Being trapped at home, a place that should be a haven of safety, can turn into a living hell for far too many people with the detection rate for young victims being shockingly low.”
8 | Palaye Royale | Anxiety
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Palaye Royale have released the post-apocalyptic, Mad-Max-esque music video for Anxiety taken from their new albu, The Bastards. The video was shot in the Nevada desert and picks up where their previous music video for Lonely left off. The track showcases the heavier end of the new Palaye Royale sound found on their latest release.”
9 | Crown Lands | Roving On
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian powerhouse rock duo Crown Lands unveil the gorgeous performance video for their song Roving On. The track was previously released as part of the acoustic EP Wayward Flyers Volume 1, which was released earlier this month. The video for Roving On was shot at a studio chalet in Uxbridge, Ont., and is the third and final installment of a series of performance videos made for Wayward Flyers Volume 1.”
10 | Roman Rouge | The Other Me
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Roman Rouge is a R&B pop singer/songwriter from El Paso, Texas. Born with music running through his veins, the musician was exposed to the industry from a young age and never looked back. Despite various struggles which he faced throughout his childhood, including his single mother trying to make ends meet, Roman took every obstacle in his stride, ultimately building his character and making him who he is today. Through every failure came strength and eventually the hardships paid off. The passionate and driven artist now not afraid of anything that may come his way, is ready for the next step of his journey. Inspired by personal events and poignant moments in life, the singer confides, “The message in my music overall is always relatable, something you’ve been through can and always affect the decisions you make in the future. My songs are linked to each other, I like to convey a story and be as honest and forthcoming as I can.”
11 | Whitechapel | Doom Woods
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Whitechapel have launched a new animated video for the track Doom Woods, which appears on their latest album, The Valley. Guitarist Alex Wade comments: “While we have some time off from touring, we thought it would be a great time to give a visual representation to the closing track from the album. We were blown away with what the design team was able to create and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. It really gives the track a new depth.”
12 | Sergio Calderón & Céli Lee | The Northern World
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Sergio Calderón & Céli Lee have just released their third single The Northern World from their debut LP The Eternal Dice, which is out Friday. The Eternal Dice is a biographical album that took two years to complete. To accompany the launch of the new single, the duo also created and produced a music video combining their music performance and multimedia artwork, turning the video into an online art exhibition.”
https://youtu.be/aSnLybqPXNY
13 | Kllo | Somehow
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Kllo — electronic pop duo of Melbourne cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam — will release their new album, Maybe We Could on July 17. Today they share the new single/video Somehow, a swirling dance track undercut by an imbalanced relationship. Left to do the heavy-lifting, the narrator expresses her frustrations as club-ready percussion and synth lines spiral out of stasis. “Somehow is one of the dancier tracks on the album and one of the more difficult ones to finish,” says Kllo. “It went through many different incarnations before arriving at its final state. Although gruelling at times, we consider this process to be a positive thing. The harder songs to finish are usually the ones people connect with most. It’s just a matter of simplifying the ideas once we’ve over worked them.”
14 | DK-Zero | Switch Me On
THE PRESS RELEASE: “DK-Zero announce their second album Cyber Sex Inc and new song Switch Me On. Cyber Sex Inc is set in dystopian future where corporations have done enough human gene testing that they have figured out a way to “breed out” the ability for the average person to enjoy having an orgasm or really feel much of anything at all sexually. The only way people can enjoy sex or “get off” is by purchasing a pill or multiple pills from the company. The first single Switch Me On follows a female underground futuristic Cyber Sex pill dealer who becomes a major crime boss. It explores female empowerment and subversive action against the corporate powers that be.”
15 | Beans on Toast | Glastonbury Weekend
THE PRESS RELEASE: “What are we going to do Glastonbury weekend? With the festival postponed this year because of you-know-what, Beans’ latest single arrives on what would have been its 50th Anniversary celebration. What will you miss the most? The Stone Circle on the Summer Solstice? Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney on the Pyramid? The sun shining over Pennard Hill? Saluting the greatest festival on Earth, Glastonbury Weekend touches on all of these and so much more. Singing… “all of the music and the madness and the magic and the millions of memories that can’t be replicated… I need something to restore my faith in humanity: I need Glastonbury!”
16 | Yves Jarvis | Victim
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Montreal’s Yves Jarvis has released a video and a new song entitled Victim. The song is “a tightrope walk between victor and victim,” Jarvis explains and he has shared a lyric video for the song based around a hand-drawn loop of animation that he has been working on. Yves Jarvis is a clean slate, a recasting of Montreal-based musician Jean-Sebastian Audet, who formerly went by the moniker Un Blonde. Each aspect of Audet’s work is immensely personal, and Yves Jarvis reflects this literally. Yves is Audet’s middle name, while Jarvis is his mother’s last name.”
17 | Greg Lisher | Three Kings
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Guitarist Greg Lisher joined the pioneering indie-rock band Camper Van Beethoven in 1985, before becoming a founding member of the CVB spinoff indie-prog group Monks of Doom in 1987. Thirty-plus years later and both bands are still going strong with tours and recent albums over the last few years (most recently with Monks of Doom’s 2018 studio LP The Brontë Pin). In addition to playing in these eclectic and revered bands he’s also released two solo records as a singer-songwriter and is currently preparing to release his third — an instrumental album entitled Songs From The Imperial Garden, out July 10. Greg brings together his love for a broad range of sounds and genres for this inventive, explorative collection. From Celtic folk and ambient soundscapes to classical guitar ruminations, country-folk, upbeat bluegrass and angular art-rock, there’s little left off the table on this immersive instrumental effort.”
18 | Wyatt C. Louis | Dancing With Sue
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Wyatt C. Louis is a Cree-Métis folk singer-songwriter, based in Moh’kinstsís (Calgary). He has made an impact on the eclectic city with songs built from soaring melodies, railroad-like finger picking and quiet, haunting vocals and lyrical phrasing. Dark, rustic tales meld folk and soulful blues to tell tales of love, loss and the journey home. They’re beautiful, subtle creations that juxtapose emotions, striking imagery and experiences that charm and envelop listeners. His brand new release, Dancing With Sue, evokes the feeling of nostalgia, and yearning for the times in our lives where we feel the happiest and most free. Captured effortlessly through warm tones and colourful song writing, this is the first offering from Wyatt’s new album, coming in fall 2020.”
19 | A.A. Williams | Love And Pain
THE PRESS RELEASE: “With her much-anticipated debut album Forever Blue due for release July 3, A.A. Williams shares new track Love And Pain. Williams says: “Love And Pain explores the juxtaposition of positive and negative emotions, specifically the titular feelings that often go hand in hand. The protagonist acknowledges that their ongoing sadness is often of their own creation — they try to accept love from another, but soon come to see that this affection masks more bitter intentions. I tried to mimic this harsh realisation musically, the cautious, inquisitive opening and verses starkly interrupted by the crushing weight of the latter half of the song — it’s repetitive chords, layered vocals and swirling synths evoking all-enveloping and uncontrollable sorrow.”
20 | Terminal Nation | Master Plan
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Little Rock-based political hardcore/grindcore band Terminal Nation have deployed a new track from their impending Holocene Extinction LP, set for early August release. The new song Master Plan is now streaming. Offers Terminal Nation’s Stan Liszewski about the new single, “Master Plan is about various American institutions like the prison industrial complex, the police, the use immigration camps, and the like, and how people often refer to them as ‘broken systems.’ Many think that these programs have potential to be reformed. I’d disagree with that, to advocate for reform of these institutions implies that they have failed, but they have not failed, these are not ‘broken systems,’ they are functioning exactly how they were intended to. They were made to inflict harm, gain control over, and profit off society’s most vulnerable and marginalized people. This was always their Master Plan.”
21 | Incantation | Propitiation
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Death metal pioneers Incantation return with their highly anticipated new full-length, Sect Of Vile Divinities, coming Aug. 21. A pitch-black mix of unrelenting death metal and imposing funeral doom, each track on Sect Of Vile Divinities is a dirge dedicated to different ancient evils across various cultures. At a point where the world’s most vile converge, tracks such as Propitiation see the band’s driving riffs and pummeling drums crush the very foundations of religious zealotry.”
22 | Jr Jr | The Gambler
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Detroit duo Jr Jr share their new single The Gambler. With plans for North American touring scuttled by COVID-19, Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott simply did what musicians do… create new music. Discussing the inspiration for The Gambler, Epstein recalled a visit to Las Vegas. “We were put up in a truly depressing casino, which featured an oxygen/IV fluid bar in the lobby, next to a tattoo parlor. The hotel’s all-you-can-eat buffet was highly worrisome to me as a germ spreading nightmare (and COVID-19 wasn’t even a thought yet). I took the photo we’re using for this single’s cover in what used to be the horse racing portion of the casino, which seemed to have been abandoned since the early 2000s. Immediately after taking the photo, I had what I can only describe as a 14-hour panic attack until we left a full day early. Eventually I got home and started making beats from sounds and samples that matched the feeling of the photo. Soon after, I shared it with Daniel and he enhanced the elements that made the song feel “drunk” and “woozy” to match the characters we were writing about.”
23 | Iboga Gazebo | Equinox ft. Kim Yang
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The second single from Iboga Gazebo, Equinox, is lifted from the upcoming album Dose Age. Equinox once again highlights the stunning vocals of Kim Yang. It is dreamy, romantic and the perfect soundtrack for a Sunday afternoon chill out session. Equinox is an expose of love’s journey both positive and negative. Immersed in celestial analogy and the life cycle. Interspersed with a physicist’s conclusion on the nature of consciousness reality. Iboga Gazebo features Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) on bass, Jebin Bruni (PiL, Rufus Wainright, Fiona Apple) on keyboards, Jeffrey Cain (The Church, Remy Zero) on guitar and Richard Ploog (The Church) on drums, and the lead vocals of evocative chanteuse Kim Yang.”
24 | Decoration Day | Lanark County
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto folk band Decoration Day announce their debut album Makeshift Future, set for release on Sept. 18, and share the first single Lanark County. The song is described by guitarist and songwriter Justin Orok as a vision song. “It follows a kind of surreal dream logic,” says Justin. “The imagery comes out of this just-below-the-surface hostility I would feel when visiting idyllic small town Ontario; somehow, it ended up sounding almost biblical. Shortly after writing this song, I ended up moving to Lanark County, and started to understand where that hostile feeling comes from. There’s a different kind of spiritual energy here, and even though I’m not a particularly religious person, I still feel it in the day-to-day routine and the way that time passes.”
