JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Herbie Hancock’s 86th birthday.
New Audio: Danny Waters Shares Lush and Euphoric “Memories (Radio Mix)”
Danny Waters is a Portuguese DJ, producer and founder and label head of Sonic Frequency Records. As a DJ and producer, Waters has crafted material across a wide range of electronic music genres and subgenres including house, deep house, deep tech, tech house, progressive house and techno — with a deep interest in protest and probing social questions.
Waters’ latest single “Memories” is a lush bit of melodic, pop-leaning house anchored around euphoria-inducing hooks and choruses and pulsating beats that sounds perfect for the club, the lounge and the rooftop party. But at its core, the song is meant to invite the listener to simultaneously relive old memories and to create new ones that they’ll relive later — hopefully on the dance floor.
New Audio: I WANT POETRY Share Lush, Nostalgia-Inducing “Backyard Astronauts”
German indie electro pop duo I WANT POETRY — Tine von Bergen (vocals) and Till Moritz Moll (keys) — have received attention for crafting music that simultaneously feels cinematic and deeply human, blending emotional depth with luminous pop soundscapes.
While developing a reputation for an immersive live show and striking visuals, the German duo have earned critical acclaim and a nomination at the European Songwriting Awards. The duo have played over 100 shows across their native Germany, Poland, Sweden and elsewhere, while making the run of the European showcase festival circuit. And adding to a growing national and international profile, the duo’s single “Light” landed on iTunes charts in several countries, amassing over 500,000 streams globally — and was selected for the soundtrack for the Canadian film, La mécanique des frontières.
2026 looks to be a breakthrough year for the German indie electro pop duo: Their highly anticipated third album, Future Selves is slated for a May 29, 2026 release. The album is reportedly hopeful and transformative, inspired by a brief moment in time when the future still felt like a promise, channeling the spirit of past dreams of utopia and progress. And as a result, the new album offers a forward-thinking vision shaped by memory, imagination and the will to create what comes next.
Sonically, the album’s material marks an evolution from the reflective tones of Solace + Light, featuring layers of shimming synths and soaring melodies.
Future Selves will include the previously released “Mirrors Of The Sky,” the Michael Micheal Vanja, Ghian Wright and The EmU-co-produced “No Is a Full Sentence,” and it’s latest single “Backyard Astronauts.”
“Backyard Astronauts” continues a run of lush, hook-driven synth pop but unlike its immediate predecessors, the new single sees the German duo showcasing a balance of earnestness, childhood whimsy and wonder — the sort of wonder and joy inspired by brave astronauts and space travel. But along with that is the of dream of scientific and technological progress informing a desperately needed sense of hope and unity, much like the recent Artemis II mission.
“‘Backyard Astronauts’ captures the feeling of childhood summers when imagination could turn a backyard into a space mission,” the German duo explain,. It’s our song for everyone who still has a sense of wonder about space travel, a quiet dream of unity and progress that feels as present now as it did back then. It’s a reminder of how closely we’re connected – and how far imagination and friendship can take us.”
New Video: Cincinnati’s Sungaze Shares soaring “I’m No Longer Afraid of Heights”
Through the release of their first three albums, 2019’s Light in All of It, 2021’s This Dream and 2024’s self-titled effort, Cincinnati-based indie sextet Sungaze — Ivory Snow (vocals), Ian Hilvert (lead guitar, vocals), Snow’s sister Angela Colvin (bass), Charlie Hausfield (rhythm guitar) and Zach Starkie (rhythm guitar) and Tyler Collier (drums) — have established a sound that draws from the atmospherics of shoegaze and the nostalgic pull of Midwest emo, blending lush, textured guitars with clear vocals and poetic lyricism.
Slated for a May 22, 2026 release through Candlepin Records and Softseed Music, the Cincinnati-based sextet’s fourth album I’m No Longer Afraid of Heights reportedly marks a turning point for the band. Thematically, the material is an excavation of personal history reframed through the present, where survival, ambition and grief coexist. Most of the album sits in — and captures — the tension between past and present, capturing the feeling of trying to move forward while carrying the weight of where you’ve been and how you’ve gotten there. Simultaneously looking within and without, the album traces the cost of staying, the fear of leaving, and the moments in our lives that force change.
I’m No Longer Afraid of Heights‘ latest single, album title track “I’m No Longer Afraid of Heights” opens with a gorgeous intro meant to evoke childhood memories of hot, hazy summers playing with your friends and/or siblings; and of times that seem deceptively simple and carefree, before morphing to a stormy and brooding section that evokes the bitterness of an unfulfilled stagnant life of drudgery and frustration punctuated by grief and heartache. Throughout, Ivory Snow’s ethereal vocal expresses a mix of heartache and resignation, followed by newfound sense of defiance and inspired action, seemingly informed by the recognition that it’s better to have tried and fallen on your face than to never attempt to live your dream.
The accompanying video draws from a real memory while simultaneously being intentionally symbolic. Set in a small Ohio town along the banks of the Little Miami River, the video contrasts warm childhood imagery with the bleakness and starkness of grown-up routine and loss, employing water, movement and live performance as parallel paths towards release. The video’s dual ending cuts between Snow in work attire, floating serenely in a childhood river bathing spot and Snow in a white lace dress, crowd surfing at a Sungaze show.
“It was important to us to film the video in the real life settings that inspired it. We filmed over the course of three days. Day one was mostly spent working with our kid actors, and filming the office-attire scenes,” Sungaze’s Ivory Snow explains. “Day two was filming the outdoor performance and narrator scenes which involved sneaking into a gravel pit yard and walking the streets of the small town where I grew up. The corner store in the video is the very same that is mentioned in the first verse. The third day was the live show, which was shot at Madison Live in Covington, KY, across the river from Cincinnati. To get the slow motion effect, we had to perform the song at 2x speed, which made for a humorous experience. I think we were all thankful that we play relatively slow music.”
To prepare the live concert audience for their scene on the third day of filming, a last minute showing of the video was arranged. Snow continues, “Before filming kicked off, we set up a projector and screened a preview of the video for the audience, ending with the river scene right before the first live show shot. The room was dead silent for a few seconds after the preview ended, before erupting into applause. A few people were wiping their eyes.
Screening the video in that way felt a bit more vulnerable than expected and it was gratifying to see it received so well.”
Lyric Video: Fightmaster Shares Woozy “All Or Nothing”
Queer actor, singer/songwriter and producer E.R. Fightmaster (they/them) first came into the public eye for their roles in Grey’s Anatomy and Shrill. They built a home studio that replicated a particularly fertile creative space from a previous apartment: a cozy closet. They also learned to use Logic and sharpened their engineering techniques. “It felt like leveling up in a creative way,” Fightmaster explains. “I never have wanted to do the technical part of things, but when you’re trying to be creative, you have to set up a space that does beyond what a loop station can do.”
They emerged as a solo artist with their recording project, the aptly named FIGHTMASTER with their debut EP, 2023’s Violence and 2024’s sophomore EP Bloodshed Baby. Building upon a growing profile, Fightmaster will be releasing their full-length debut, Tolerance on June 5, 2026.
Tolerance is dominated by raw, unvarnished lyrics that reflect the complexities and messiness of emotional growth, and attempts to find equilibrium. When Fightmaster started writing the album’s material, they drew from their own life experience, analyzing them through the lens of hindsight and perspective. “Every song that I write is in some way a personal experience, but here I was mining a broader understanding of patterns throughout a lifetime: patterns of loving different people, patterns of watching my friends love each other,” they explain. “All of us do a relatively graceless job, but all the patterns are the same, which is endearing to me.”
“Tolerance is the most deliberate thing I’ve ever done,” they add. “I wanted to break through more personally on this album. I really waned to give people a part of myself . . . I would decided that a song felt good if it hurt a little bit. There had to be this real truth to it. And that requires a lack of wall between self and the audience.”
Fightmaster also wanted to work with more producers than they did in the past. On the album, they worked with Riley Geare, who produced both the Violence and Bloodshed Baby EP‘s; Casey Kalmensen, the creative mastermind of Little Monarch, who also plays keys for Gracie Abrams; and Gabe Goodman, who produced Del Water Gap‘s “Ode to A Conversation Stuck In Your Throat.“
The result is an album that exhibits artistic clarity and is a reflection of Fightmaster’s own self-awareness about their place in the world, musical and otherwise. “I have to have such a clear understanding of self all the time because I’m a public figure in a very queer way, and I’ve always taken that responsibility seriously,” Fightmaster says. “I don’t feel comfortable being reckless anymore . . . Nonbinary people and trans people have so few elders — I’m not an elder yet; I haven’t earned it — but I have taken on an understanding that’s the path that I’m on.”
Of course, none of this means that Fightmaster has completely figured it all out. No one really has it figured out. But in fact, Tolerance‘s songs brim with empathy — both for the narrators and others. “I want people to know that there’s still cracks in the pavement; I want them to feel safe with me,” they say. “I’ve always thought of myself as so tough, but in the last couple of years I had to realize that I get my feelings hurt every day… When I realized how much kid-heartbreak is still in there, even though I’ve been to all the therapy and I’m on the perfect amount of medication, I was able to write these songs with more kindness for myself than I ever had.”
Tolerance’s first single “All Or Nothing” is a shimmering and propulsive tune anchored around a taught groove and skittering, off-kilter percussion that evokes the wooziness and self-delusion of a newfound love/fling/situationship. Throughout the song, the narrator is full of bluster, challenging their romantic partner to dare to imagine the future they’d have together. But it’s mischievously ambiguous: The listener has no idea what the other person feels or thinks about the relationship or if the narrator just expressing wishful thinking. While informed by personal experience, the song tackles something that’s deeply universal: Many of us have been both the delusional, lovelorn narrator — and the unseen subject of the song.
“It’s such a dramatic bluff,” Fightmaster says. “When I wrote it, I wanted this bravado attack. Like, here’s the fucking synth, here’s the beat. I love this one because we really went hard.”
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Q-Tip!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Q-Tip’s 56th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Babyface!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Babyface’s 67th birthday.
New Video: Lip Critic Shares Tense and Bruising “Talon”
With the release of 2024’s Partisan Records debut, Hex Dealer, NYC-based hardcore outfit Lip Critic –Bret Kaser (vocals, synths, mixing), Connor Kleitz (synths, vocals), Danny Eberle (drums) and Ilan Natter (drums, mixing) — firmly established the act as a ferocious, standout creative force, earning praise from international renowned outlets like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME and Paste.
Building upon a growing profile, the quartet continued a relentless touring schedule while releasing standalone singles “Mirror Match” and “Second Life.” Their reach expanded with a remix of an IDLES track that was featured in Darren Aronofsky’s 2025 film, Caught Stealing.
Their highly-anticipated third album, Theft World is slated for a May 1, 2026 release through Partisan Records. While touring to support their debut album, Lip Critic’s frontman Bret Kaser discovered his identity had been stolen, with someone using his information to make hundreds of purchases, including the band’s entire discography. When Kaser eventually tracked this person down, he found a young fan, who believed he uncovered a hidden puzzle embedded in Lip Critic’s music and had effectively “won” some larger, cryptic game. That encounter became the foundation for Theft World, a concept album that sees the band channeling themes of digital obsession, misinterpretation and fractured identity into something chaotic but sharply intentional. Theft is explored as a political, digital and emotional condition.
Produced by the band’s Kaser and Connor Kleitz, the album reportedly sees the band refining Hex Dealer‘s chaos into a focused, fully locked-in statement. Driven by the forceful rhythmic assault of two drummers, a lightning-struck sampler and Kaser’s paranoid-preacher-like delivery, the album features colliding club rhythms and hardcore breakdowns into a sound continually torn apart and resold.
“Talon,” Theft World‘s penultimate pre-release single is a woozy, nauseating lurching churn evoking the relentlessly unceasing and seemingly inevitable horror and brutality of a world in which you’re constantly connected to banal, mind-rotting entertainment and soul-numbing atrocities. Scroll past the influencers, memes, dances and challenges to images of fights at a McDonald’s, senseless murder, genocide and others crimes against humanity and then back — every single day. “Talon” captures the paralysis and Kafkaesque hell of overexposure and what it all does to our hearts and souls.
“‘Talon’ is a song about scrolling through hell,” the band explains. “Traversing an absurd and violent world at 1000 mph in a go-kart your friend’s dad modded based off a YouTube video.”
Directed by Colter Fellows, the accompanying video for “Talon” is a mix of digital glitch and slick, hyper modern editing and camera work and drones that captures the lurching paranoia, unease and violence of our moment.
Live Footage: The Limiñanas Perform “One Blood Circle” at Because Beaubourg
Founded back in 2009, acclaimed Cablestany, France-based duo The Limiñanas — Lionel Limiñana (guitar) and Marie Limiñana (drums) — have firmly established a sound that meshes French yéyé with contemporary garage and psych rock with lyrics sung in French and English.
Through their collaborations with a diverse array of artists, the French duo have a unique ability to distill the cachet of a nostalgic, highly cinematic era while revisiting it with through a modern lens. They’ve built up an international profile through collaborations with The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Anton Newcombe and New Order‘s Peter Hook.
During their early years, their material was released through labels here in the States; for a while, they had a much bigger profile Stateside than their native France. And adding to a growing international profile, they have high-profile admirers ranging from Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand to Iggy Pop, who regularly plays them on his BBC 6 Music show.
After a 2015 collaborative album with Pascal Comeleade, the duo signed to French label Because Music, who re-issued their catalog in Europe. And since then they’ve continued to captivate audiences and critics globally through extensive touring across Europe, the UK and Australia.
The duo celebrate their extensive catalog with the release of their first live album, Live at Beaubourg, which is slated for a June 19, 2026 release through Because Music. Recoded during an exceptional weekend at Centre Pompidou, Live at Beaubourg brings the psych rock sounds of the acclaimed French duo with the visuals of contemporary artist SMITH.
The collaboration between The Limiñanas and Smith goes back to Normandie Impressionniste 2024. Festival director Philippe Platel thought it would be a great idea to bring both artists together. “I had already been listening to The Limiñanas for a long time, so I was delighted,” he says. At the time, the duo were working on their most recent effort, Faded, an album dedicated to Golden Era Hollywood actresses, who are no longer with us. This resonated with SMITH’s work, which often employs the use of thermal cameras. “What the camera sees is not the body but the heat it gives off, a kind of aura left behind before it disappears,” Smith says. That’s exactly what Faded is about: bringing these ghosts back through music.
Conceived to match the architecture and energy of Because Beaubourg, where the label turns the museum into a playground where performances, carte blanche events and even DJ sets from the likes of Thomas Bangalter and Fred Again.. , Live at Beaubourg serves as the only recording from that weekend and was envisioned as a documentary of the event, rather than a simple live “best of” album.
SMITH and the acclaimed French duo had imagined a collaborative show that would take place October 24, 2025 during Because Beaubourg at Centre Pompidou. The album captures the hypnotic eight-song performance in a continuous flow, featuring a backing band of five musicians and their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade playing songs across their catalog. That’s right, no interruptions. “What I love about live shows is achieving a kind of trance naturally through the performance. We had agreed there would be no interruption in the sound, with a ceremonial aspect as well, since we were closing Beaubourg before renovations,” Lionel Limiñana says.
Along with the album announcement, the duo will be embarking on their first-ever North American tour. The tour includes an October 24, 2026 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. And of course, the rest of the tour dates are below. But in the meantime, the acclaimed French duo shared a live version of broodingly cinematic “One Blood Circle,” featuring their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade. Anchored around a persistent and relentless pulse, “One Blood Circle” evokes the unease, dread and brutality of our late-stage capitalist, fascistic hellscape. And fittingly, SMITH’s visuals are haunting yet profoundly gorgeous.
New Video: POND Returns with Anthemic, Post Punk-Like “Two Hands”
Perth-based JOVM mainstays POND — currently, Nicholas Allbrook (lead vocals, guitar, keys, bass, flute, slide guitar and drums); singer/songwriter and producer Jay Watson (vocals, guitar, keys, drums, synths and bass), who’s also the creative mastermind of acclaimed JOVM mainstay outfit GUM and a touring member of acclaimed, Grammy Award-nominated JOVM mainstays Tame Impala; Joe Ryan (vocals, guitar, bass, 12 string guitar, slide guitar); Jamie Terry (keys, bass, synths, organs, guitar); and Jamie Ireland (drums, keys) — will be releasing their 11th album Terrestrials on June 19, 2026 through their newly-minted Mangovision/Secretly Distribution.
The writing and recording process for Terrestrials was subject to a simple set of rules: No fuzz pedal. No ballads. No “Pink Floyd shit.” Conceived from a place of deep reverence for a particular potent era of Oz rock, the JOVM mainstays’ 11th album reportedly mines the sound of open sky melancholia, heat haze sizzling on the plains and jangly pub backrooms that will hit an eternally poignant nerve for those familiar with the sound, time and place. And from there, the album evolved with the idea of “Goths at the pub” becoming the record’s stylistic north star — with 80s Australiana being acid-washed with the post-punk of Sisters Of Mercy, Magazine and the like. Throughout the album’s creative and recording process, they’d ask themselves “Would Goths like it? Could you have a beer to this?” If the answers were yes, it was thrust into the mix.
Like much of their catalog, Terrestrials is a record of people and place, of exploring the identity of each, as well as where and how they intersect and interact. Thematically, the album touches upon extractive capitalism, power dynamics., inequality, Indigenous incarceration, eccentric outcasts, fire and water, diesel and dust, unity and division, blood and bauxite, unborn tomorrows and dead yesterdays. And as a result, the album’s material twitches with the desperation of people and their planet on the brink, but while betting on the beauty of both to prevail.
The album will feature the recently released, album title track “Terrestrials” and its second and latest single, “Two Hands.” The Sisters of Mercy-meets-Diesel and Dust-era Midnight Oil-like “Two Hands” is slick, shimmering and downright anthemic tune, but it throbs and twitches with anger familiar anger and despair over a society that values money above all — including this planet and our lives.
“This song is about when mining company Rio Tinto blew up Juukun Gorge in the Hammersley Range in Western Australia. They destroyed sacred rock shelters that were of the highest archaeological, cultural and spiritual significance,” POND’s Nicholas Allbrook explains. “The rock shelters contained a cultural sequence spanning 46,000 years that had been taken care of by the local Indigenous communities. I was wondering how the commentators around this country would’ve reacted if the shoe was on the other foot and someone had demolished the Vatican or Notre Dame or St. Paul’s because it was in the way of their corporate expansion. Anyway, its a little word of encouragement that you’ve got every right to be very fucking angry about this injustice.”
Directed by Sam Kristofski and the JOVM mainstays, the accompanying video will remind Americans of The Dukes of Hazard but set in a post-apocalyptic hellscape that nods at Mad Max. Allbrook continues, “The video was made by us and Sam Kristofski (with heaps of help from Tess Thompson, Kate Green and Christian Dillon). We filmed it in York and the Beverley Offroad Motorsports Association on one of the hottest days of the summer. Az was tough enough to wear full leathers the whole time. Endless thanks to him and Ry for fully embodying the soul of this video with their enduring passion for dust, rust, black cans, circlework and fucked up old motorcars.”
Throwback: Happy 62nd Birthday, Biz Markie!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 62nd anniversary of the birth of Biz Markie.
New Video: Jon Spencer Shares Swaggering “Knock ‘Em Out”
For the better part of the past four decades, Jon Spencer has been both an innovative force and stalwart in the independent music scene. He has an amassed a dizzying and disruptive discography as the frontman of bands like Pussy Galore, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Heavy Trash and Jon Spencer & the HITmakers, as well as stints as a member of Boss Hog, The Honeymoon Killers, Gibson Bros. and Taxidermy Girls.
Spencer has also been a highly sought-after collaborator, who has worked with an eclectic array of artists including Steve Albini, Add N To X, Nicole Atkins, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bomb The Bass, R.L. Burnside, James Chance, Coldcut, Chuck D., Dan The Automator, Jim Dickinson, DJ Shadow, Einsturzende Neubauten, Guitar Wolf, GZA, David Holmes, Japanese Popstars, Dr. John, Calvin Johnson, Steve Jordan, Moby, Money Mark, The Muffs, North Mississippi Allstars, Princess Superstar, Puffy AmiYumi, The Sadies, Nancy Sinatra, Solex, Solomon Burke, Speedball Baby, Rufus Thomas, UNKLE, Unloved, Andre Williams and the late, great Bernie Worell among others.
As a producer, he has produced material by Cheater Slicks, Demolition Doll Rods, Experimental Tropic Blues Band, Perrosky, Mike Edison, Jesper Munk, Sunshine & The Rain, The Bobby Lees and the Grammy-nominated Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton album, Death Wish Blues.
Spencer’s newest album, Songs of Personal Loss and Protest is slated for a June 12, 2026 release — both physical and digital — through Shove Records here in the States. The album, which features Spencer (vocals, guitar, synth, organ and percussion) and a backing band of Kendall Wind (bass, vocals. guitar, piano and organ) and Macky “Spider” Bowman (drums, vocals and percussion), best known for being members of The Bobby Lees, and was produced by Spencer and was recorded by Chris Bittner at Woodstock, NY‘s Applehead Recording in a one-day session last July, with the exception of “Vermin Attack!” and “Mr. Lion” which were recorded by Felipe Ruz and Perrosky at Santiago, Chile‘s Estudio Algorecords last April.
Thematically, Songs of Personal Loss and Protest asks a simple question: Can rock ‘n’ roll save the world? Spencer would answer emphatically, “YES.”
“I’m in a time of spiritual reckoning,” Spencer says. “These past few years there has been a lot of emotional conflict and personal loss — the passing of time takes its toll. Losing friends, losing family, and all of this set against a world gone topsy turvy where it feels like we are losing basic freedoms… I’m trying to balance a lot of things, but the answer is always rock’n’roll.”
The 12-song album sees Spencer tearing his heart singing songs informed and inspired by the front page and beyond. The songs are futuristic power blues and garage punk explosions about the nausea, unease and paranoia delivered by a reality show president, and the power and resilience it takes to rebel. It may all be deeply personal — the fight to create and live, and push back against dark forces — but while never losing sight that we’re all in this together, for better or for worse.
“Rock’n’roll is America’s true gift to the world — the sound of revolution! It came out of the sky, a screaming, chrome-plated flying saucer, like an outer space monster, landed here on Earth so the freaks could have their say,” Spencer says. “It is the hip-shaking sound of rebellion. The blues is my bible, rock’n’roll is our battle cry!”
“Knock ‘Em Out,” is a swaggering and rousingly anthemic tune that’s one-part rollicking battle cry, one-part sweaty old-school blues-tinged pub rocker, anchored by tight, funky groove. Rock should always be loud and bombastic — but it can also be about something bigger and important, too. We only have us, y’all. So let’s get to work before it’s too late.
The accompanying video is by Andrew Hooper and features studio photos by Skyler Smith, live concert photos by Masashi Yukimoto and live footage of Spencer and company rocking out.