Queen City Sounds and Art

Meli Levi’s Heartfelt “Echo in a Valley” is a Tender Look Back on Years of Self-Abuse Without the Cruelty of Self-Judgment

Meli Levi’s heartfelt “Echo in a Valley” is especially effective because it has an economy of songwriting and minimal arrangements that allow for wide open emotional spaces that come together for sweeping, orchestral passages. In the video we see Levi performing in front of a garage door with a bassist and a drummer but we also hear a string section that helps to fill up and brighten the song as it progresses toward a triumphant ending. It’s a song about looking back at the path you’ve been on and the patterns that you’ve worn into self-destructive ruts that seemed self-soothing at first but became a weight on your soul in the end. In the song we hear a willingness to embrace truth instead of the lies that sustained what you thought was helping you survive long term especially when everything seems to crash in on you emotionally and it can all feel overwhelming. The shimmering melodies with a touch of jangle and Levi’s expressive and soaring vocals render this song that speaks so poetically to a cycle of bad habits and breaking them instantly relatable without the cruelty of self-judgment. Watch the video for “Echo in a Valley” on YouTube and follow Meli Levi at the links below. Levi’s new EP All Things May Be released May 31, 2024 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Meli Levi on Facebook

Meli Levi on Instagram

The Love Eggs Dive Headlong Into Krautrock Pop Weirdness With the Exuberant Momentum of “Memory Man”

The Lovely Eggs deliver a perfect fusion of krautrock and indiepop with “Memory Man.” The music video has all the strangeness and shifting colors and entrancing art one would expect had Broadcast, Ladytron and Stereolab collaborated on a track. Visually it pairs well with the music with a collage of styles that mutually reinforce for a memorable aesthetic that commands your attention. The lead vocal melody sounds like something coming to us from an outer space transmission and the backing vocals like those of a robot repeating the title of the song. Maybe the guitar pedal of the same name is used on the song but its production is more straightforward with the songwriting providing the weirdness—always a solid creative choice. But however the song was recorded and with what instrumentation it has a propulsive energy in which it is easy to get swept up within to the end. Watch the video for “Memory Man” on YouTube and follow The Lovely Eggs at the links provided. The group’s new album Eggsistentialism is due for release on May 17, 2024.

The Lovely Eggs on Instagram

Onsetter Savages the Corrosive Baked in Greed of the Culture of Late Capitalism in the Noisy Death Grind of “Dolos”

“Dolos,” the first single from Onsetter’s self-titled EP, establishes some parameters for the righteous invective that courses through the rest of the songs. The desperate and caustic, grindcore-style-esque vocals carve out a tale of a class of people who seem to feel fine trampling on the backs of others to sustain a privileged lifestyle and mindset that thrives on a false sense of superiority built on the perception of those beneath them on the social/economic scale deserve their deprivation and suffering. The angular savagery of the guitar, bass and drums accent every line and amplify the sense of beyond weary and back again to outrage feeling of the entire song with the rest of the songs on the EP offering similarly harrowing portraits of living in a society that neglects the needs of the vast majority of humans in favor of maximizing profits and privilege for the one percent of the one percent of the one percent. Fans of Neurosis, Isis, Amenra and the noisier, more hardcore-influenced end of sludge metal will appreciate what Boise’s Onsetter is giving.

Onsetter Links

Onsetter on Facebook

Onsetter on Instagram

Ritual Fade’s “Paraïba” is a Processional Downtempo Journey Through Dusky Landscapes

The saturated and distorted synth line that runs through Ritual Fade’s “Paraïba” with its low end emphasized flows like a curving river. Its passages accented by syncopated electric bass drum and rattling trap-like percussion to give it some delicate texture. The processional pace and hushed vocals lend the song a mysterious quality as the lyrics off hints of meaning as the title of the song perhaps references a state in northeastern Brazil with a tragic history of colonization, violent repression, exploitation and neglect but also fierce resistance. The song with its ripples of tone peppered through the song and granular ambient features is adjacent in style to more experimental darkwave bands and its emotional tenor and dusky atmospheres is reminiscent of the song “Tatters” by post-punk band Plague Garden and its own processional and languid dynamic. Listen to “Paraïba” on Spotify and follow Ritual Fade, the solo project of Filipino American artist and producer Pauline Laciste, on Instagram. The album Vibrations of Chance dropped on March 11, 2024.

BODEGA Pokes Fun at Hyper Consumerist Culture on Playful New Wave Post-Punk Single “Cultural Consumer III”

BODEGA, photo courtesy the artists

BODEGA channel a bit of early 2000s New York post-punk revival sound in “Cultural Consumer III” with the minimal guitar work in a power pop style and a nervy urgency in the pace of the song. The music video looks like something that was filmed on VHS and shared on a cable access show in the 90s with wonderfully low budget production values of the band riding in a car through the night looking like a roller coaster cart. But it’s BODEGA so of course there’s more than the surface level in the lyrics and the meta-commentary about how many people, often ourselves, consume culture like it’s throwaway while participating in consumer culture because there are few authentic choices in late capitalism. The songwriting is reminiscent of the plasticity of early 80s New Wave which often also had pointed things to say about that era of alienation of the “greed is good” decade but the hooks are genuine and the song makes the ride through the harrowing modern times seem at least survivable though the cheesy explosion at the end of the song is a bit cheeky in the best way. It’s part of a loose trilogy on the band’s new album Our Brand Could Be YR Life (Michael Azerrad and the Minutemen should be proud) which is filled with the usual surreal and self-aware lyrics and avant-pop leanings and out now on limited edition LP, CD, digital download and streaming. Watch the video for “Cultural Consumer III” on YouTube and follow Brooklyn’s BODEGA at the links below.

BODEGA on TikTok

BODEGA on Instagram

Twin Court’s Thoughtful and Introspective “Wolf in the Breast” is a Lushly Melancholic Fusion of Non-Western Folk and Classic American Indie Rock

Twin Court’s use of what often sounds like improvised, and certainly unconventional, percussion and a bell that borders on discordant lends “Wolf in the Breast” a unique musical texture and a quality of something rough hewn like something from a non-Western folk tradition. But the songwriting with its soft vocals and delicately resonant guitar melodies are reminiscent of Yo La Tengo if that band had hailed from a more rural setting rather than Hoboken, New Jersey. There is a melancholic haze to the song that heightens aspect of thoughtful introspection. The lyrics are at times enigmatic and others seemingly an impressionistic meditation on how everyone has sides of themselves hidden away until the right experiences draw them out and how sides of our own personalities can sit firmly in our own blind spots until they’re brought into conscious focus in a way that makes them seem like they should have been obvious to us all along. Listen to “Wolf in the Breast” (not to be confused with the Cocteau Twins song of the same name) on YouTube and follow Twin Court at the links below.

Twin Court on Instagram

Easy Sleeper’s Raucous and Melancholic Jangle Pop Single “Pleasure Thrills” is a Song About Pacing Yourself Instead of Burning Out

Easy Sleeper evokes a a deep sense of melancholic nostalgia and regret on “Pleasure Thrills.” Jangle-y guitar chords ring out with great spirit and then hang and linger accented by a subtle but strong bass line and framed by especially expressive percussion. The vocals weave a story and commentary about how in life there’s a lot of pressure to participate in pretense and competition under the misunderstanding that the choices offered to us are the only ones available and how maybe choosing a different path and way of being might be for the best. Lines like “Two conclusions pick the third one” suggest there’s always a different way of thinking. And the lines asking why you can’t just slow down or shut down instead of chasing after some dubious social reward sound like a call for not making decisions in haste and constantly living life like there’s a finish line. “You’ve only heard of meltdown,” that lyric concisely captures how a lot of people go through life catastrophizing when they crack periodically under their own self-imposed pressure, and who hasn’t at some point in their lives, when that could be bypassed by pacing oneself and forgoing imagined potential glory. The title may have another meaning completely but it fits how a life lived in bipolar fashion can seem exciting and fun but at what cost? Musically the song is reminiscent of 2000s indie pop and the kind of underground power pop that informed it with intricate melodies and raw yet tender moods. Listen to “Pleasure Thrills” on Spotify and follow Easy Sleeper at the links below. Look for the band’s next record due out in the fall.

Easy Sleeper on TikTok

Easy Sleeper on Instagram

Sebastian Müller’s Remix of E. Terre’s Ambient Song “Butterflies In A Field” is Like a Beautifully Negative Image of the Ethereal Sparkle of the Original

Brighton, UK-based artist Sebastian Müller took E. Terre’s song “Butterflies In A Field” from the latter’s 2023 debut EP A Constant Collage and truly changed its character and energy in the remix. The bright and effervescent quality of the original in Müller’s re-work is preserved as an undercurrent and the textural elements emphasized. The effect is something that sounds like a musical extrapolation on the frequences of water flowing briskly in an underground cave. The luminescent sounds more like something experienced in a dark environment rather than above ground in the sunlight. Or on a cloudy day with the shimmery dynamic of the original processed so the lower frequencies are emphasized lending the remix a paradoxically darker yet still resonant aspect that is like the musical equivalent of a negative image of E. Terre’s shining and sparkly original. Listen to “Butterflies In A Field – Sebastian Müller Remix” on Spotify.

Joh Chase’s Charming Folk Pop Single “When I Got This Place” is a Song About Being Content With Where You Are in Your Head and on the Planet

Joh Chase drives down the surprisingly un-glamorous streets of daytime Los Angeles in the video for “When I Got This Place” and it serves as a perfect companion to the song’s lyrics. The spare and lively guitar work and Chase’s intimate and immediately engaging vocals deliver a song that seems to be about what it’s like to move to a place that’s supposed to mean so much more to so many people and a place many people go to make their dreams come true only to find that it’s often a lot different than some romanticized vision from film and television. But Chase’s song isn’t about disillusionment, it’s about coming to appreciate where you are geographically and in life. And to manage expectations and accept things as they are. Perhaps even to appreciate the uniqueness of where you find yourself and its unique charms. Chase’s song is an uplifting and finely crafted pop song filled with a gentle spirit and sense of acceptance that isn’t common enough in music at the moment. Watch the video for “When I Got This Place” on YouTube and follow Joh Chase at the links below. Chase’s album SOLO dropped on April 26, 2024 via Kill Rock Stars.

Joh Chase on Facebook

Joh Chase on Instagram

McDead’s “90” is a Cinematic, Psychedelic Big Beat Dub Dance Banger

You never quite know what you’ll get when you listen to a McDead song. Kev Edinborough’s influences and inspirations are diverse and seemingly hitting him in a serendipitous an intuitive fashion from track to track. “90” sounds like it crawled out of some hip post-Bristol trip-hop heyday and aftermath of the Hacienda closing in Manchester underground. It has a solidly moody, fuzzy bass line that pulls us in immediately to be swept up in psychedelic shimmer, breakbeats and an echoing keyboard melody that surrounds and drops in and out of the track while heavily processed soulful vocals haunt a deep inner place of the song. The subtle stereo effects in the production is masterful in placing the sound in and the way the tones decay in the delay and seem to swim around and linger briefly or hang and resonate into the ether. The song is impressive for how it has multiple hooks that make it memorable listen that stays with you. It belongs in a Jim Jarmusch film. Listen to “90” on Spotify and follow McDead at the links below.