Made Violent

Made Violent are the guys proving that there’s still room for a bluesy punk sound in modern garage rock. Many of the songs on their debut album Wannabe are catchy, danceable jams that would be right at home on a summer road trip. But the group flips the script with Jealous King, the last tune on the LP. It’s a stirring change of pace filled with a hurts-so-good sense of longing.

Lead singer and bassist Joel White starts the song with a patient bass riff that perpetuates a sense of thoughtfulness throughout. White’s raspy singing style invokes soul as he alternates between lines packed to the gills with words and more spacious and measured phrasing. 

His rhythmic mumbling on the verses feed seamlessly to a refrain about the “the only one who could always let me down” and build to chilling belts surrounded by Justin Acee’s crashing drums. The guitarist Rob Romano piles on a haunting lick solo as White howls the lines “ever let me down”.  After the second solo the wail of feedback and unidentified keys help us descend down from the peak. 

As complete a song as it is, I look forward to seeing Made Violent perform Jealous King live. If they can bring most of what makes the studio version work to the stage version I’m sure it’ll be a powerful tune to experience in person.

Westerman

When I first heard 'Harvard' earlier this summer, I genuinely thought I was listening to a track by a band member of a group like Dire Straits or the Bee Gees who launched a very quiet solo career somewhere. I soulfully admit that I had never heard of Will Westerman (who goes by Westerman) until June this year upon recommendation from a 'good music' friend - we all have one, don't we? After listening to 'Harvard' I was eager to see what other types of clean, vintage nostalgia the Westerman could induce. Much to my delight, my second find was 'Blue Comanche'; a peaceful, delicate track that contains much of the similar vintage sounds found in 'Harvard', though with a slight touch of electronic synth. The more I became acquainted with the Westerman, the broader the range became. Not something I often stumble across in the quest for new music. I was hooked.

Fantasy Non-Fiction

When Rose Cangelosi, a fixture behind the drum kit in New Orleans' jazz scene, put together the rock band Fantasy Non-Fiction several years ago, she did so with a keen pop sensibility that permeates their self-titled debut. On Fantasy Non-Fiction, released in May 2020, the four-piece (filled out by Molly Reeves and Nahum Zydbel on guitar, and Sam Albright on bass, French Quarter pros all) throws down an impressive array of hooks that recall 70s power-pop, 00's indie rock, classic R&B, and the twentieth-century jazz standards they play on a nightly basis in Frenchmen Street clubs.

Tennis

It’s a common strategy for modern Indie Pop acts to build their sound around evoking nostalgia. But few can summon past-gazing reflection with the spirit and bounce the duo Tennis are able to bring in their song Runner. 

Rather than let the catchy underlying lick sit on its own the song immediately jumps in with a groovy rhythm for lead singer, Alina Moore’s distant but soulful voice to glide on.  Pairing her complex mid-fidelity synths with Patrick Riley’s phaser laden guitar chords creates an almost continuous spectrum of sound. The bopping kick drum and bass during the chorus really solidifies the song as an energetic anthem by design. And all the lyrical references to effort and sweat make it unironically a good to workout to! 

Little Miss

January 4, 2020. We’re almost a week into New Year’s Resolutions, people. And some of you are probably earnestly trying to keep up with the resolutions that you made... And to that, I say, keep up the good work! But if you’re feeling down because you weren’t able to commit to anything or failed outright, don’t be too sad! We have an awesome tune that may cheer you up. It’s called “A Week Into New Year’s Resolutions” by The Little Miss, which is the moniker of LA based musician, Haley Johnson. Johnson explains, “I wrote “A Week Into New Year’s Resolutions” about a week into my New Year’s resolutions… My desire to “optimize,” be productive and GET IT TOGETHER, DAMN IT, left me feeling completely defeated…Then, in writing about all that I had left unfinished, or rather, un-started, I experienced relief. All of the shame I’d been carrying around let up, as I was able to shine a light on all of my self-imposed pressure. No one was telling me to go running every day, I had merely internalized the traps of comparison culture, societal expectations, and the old, mean voices in my head that were telling me, again, how I didn’t measure up.”