#5: “Limp Wrist” by Bev Rage and the Drinks – This queercore punk delivers a wallop in under two minutes. This song floored me when I heard it, and I started telling everyone I knew about Ms. Rage and her band.
#4: “How Did This Happen!? by BODEGA – The return of post-punk continues with this great NYC band and this single that trashes hipsters. I couldn’t stop listening to this once I heard it.
#3: “Blinded by the LEDs” by Lindstrom – If you need an amazing EDM track, floor-filler, workout playlist topper, or just something to be stunned by, look no further.
#2: “Make Me Feel” by Janelle Monae – Easily the sexiest song of the year. I can’t describe it any better than that.
#1: “Always Elsewhere” by Ron Gallo – This Zen-punk jam became my mantra after hearing it. It was a much-needed crack with a Zen master’s stick during months of chaos both local and domestic. Gallo‘s suggestion that we embrace presence instead of the willful scattering of our attention is a battle call.
Thanks for reading. Up next, the top 30 live acts I saw in 2018.
2018 was the first year I started keeping track of my favorite singles of the year. It’s probably because there were so many good ones, including some that were just released as singles and others that stuck in my head for days. Who made the top 20? Read on and find out.
#20: “Sleepers” by Exploded View – This dreamy psych / synth track is a trippy mix of Velvet Underground and 80’s synthwave. It’s the kind of track that makes you wonder, “Who is this?” as soon as you hear it.
#19: “Nocturnal” by Magic Wands – Easily one of the best synthwave tracks of the year, this lush song is great for make-out sessions and has just enough of a dark edge to keep it dangerous.
#18: “You Are Dinner” by Constant Lovers – Good grief, does this thing have power. It’s a wild rock track with punk guitars and spat lyrics that the lead singer almost screws up but uses the moment to push his vocals even further.
#17: “Wheel of Fortune” by Protomartyr – The video of this shows one of the band members punching himself in the face. That’s apt, because this songs hits you just like that (especially when the chorus kicks in).
#16: “Singularity” by Jon Hopkins – The build of this electronic track is stunning to behold. It almost takes you by surprise like a big wave you didn’t see coming while standing hip-deep in the ocean. It’s over far too soon.
Who made the top 15? Come back tomorrow to find out.
Will Long, also known as Celer, has been creating ambient music since 2006. His journeys around the world (and current residency in Japan) have certainly shaped his art. The collections of sounds and moods on his newest 5-CD album, Memory Repetitions, could be played anywhere from a meditation retreat to a busy international airport.
The album consists of five tracks, the shortest of which is twenty-eight minutes and thirty-one seconds. This isn’t an album for house parties or your high-intensity cardio playlist. It’s an album of meditations, calming sounds, and mood-altering music. It’s difficult to describe, but one you’ll enjoy on your headphones as you stroll along the river or when you need to slow down the world outside your front door or even in your living room.
There are no lyrics. It doesn’t need them. It’s not an album that tells you what to think or an album that pushes an agenda. It lets your mind wander or stop, depending on what’s happening around you at the time.
British synthwave duo The KVB have announced several dates for a U.S. spring 2019 tour to promote their upcoming album Only Now Forever. Don’t miss this tour if you love vintage synths, electronic beats, and having your perception altered.
Italy’s Thrown Down Bones(Dave Gali and Francesco Vanni) fully embrace their love of breakbeat, house, rave, and dance music on their newest album – Two. Mixing synths with effects pedals, electronic drums, and touches of industrial guitars, TDB gets you moving from the outset and don’t let up until the LP ends.
The thumping beats and chugging bass that open the album and “First Follower” bring to mind some of Depeche Mode‘s darker tracks, and the pulsing, laser gun-like synths take us into sci-fi anime realms. The stunning “We Are Drugs” is your favorite industrial dance track of the year. The heavy but sharp bass line alone is worth the album’s purchase price.
The guitars on “Slow Violence” sound like an orchestrated saw mill (in a good way) while the synths bring a well-balanced light to the track. “NO-FI” is dark wave meets future noir dance music. It’s so slick that it might cause you to slip if you’re walking while listening to it.
You will love “Golovkin” if you were ever part of the 1990’s rave culture. It’s like stepping out of a strobe light-emblazoned time machine shaped like a pacifier. TBD clearly isn’t screwing around by this point and are staking their claim as one of the premiere electro dance track artists of Europe (if not worldwide). “Is This Us” keeps the amps at eleven by upping the distortion and the impact of the beats.
The backward-sounding bass on “Known Unknown” immediately intrigues you, and then the John Carpenter-like keyboard rhythms get you moving (or running from a Blade Runner, vampire, alien, or ninjas). By the time we get to the closer, “Zero Day Exploit,” you are deep in the Matrix with images of computer code, flying cars, robot soldiers, and android pole dancers flashing through your head.
Two is one of the most exciting records I’ve heard all year. It grabs you in the first few moments and holds on like a tandem skydiver until the end.
Keep your mind open.
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Tim Jones, otherwise known asPreacherman, released one album of weird, funky electronic jazz the combined analog synths with New Age philosophy on creation, love, death, life, the energy of the universe, and probably a hundred other topics I’m forgetting. In the 1980’s, Jones added a guest to his one-man band – T.J. Hustler. Mr. Hustler was a ventriloquist’s dummy who would accompany Jones on stage and preach Jones’ universal philosophy or sometimes have deep metaphysical discussions with Jones while he was playing a modified Hammond B-3.
Jones moved out to Oakland many years ago to take care of his mother, a centenarian, and continued to play in small clubs, DJ karaoke nights, and record material for his own pleasure. Thankfully, Luaka Bop Records have put out a collection of some of Jones’ rarest work – Universal Philosophy: Preacherman Plays T.J. Hustler’s Greatest Hits.
The album opens with “That’s Good,” and synths that sound like the opening to a 1980’s sci-fi romance. Preacherman asks why we keep trying to visit every planet in the solar system except Venus since it’s the planet of love. “We’re going the wrong way, y’all,” he warns as the synths build and take on a bit of a Native American flute sound and it almost turns into an Art of Noise track.
“Feel It” is nine minutes of synth grooves blended with cosmic funk. It’s an instant toe-tapper and is probably being remixed by DJ Shadow even as I write this review. It’s also our first introduction to T.J. Hustler, who talks with a gravelly voice that contains hundreds of years of wisdom. “The age of individualism is upon us, y’all….Constructive knowledge is the only thing that will keep us safe…” Hustler says. He was right in the 1980’s and he’s right again in 2018.
“Tell me why in a world so full, why love’s so hard to find?” Preacherman asks on “Tell Me Why,” a bumping electro-disco track with synth bass as sweet as maple syrup. Jones asks why we’re so empty in a world not only full of people, but full of ways to communicate faster than ever before. He also predicts it won’t be long before everything’s wiped away, so we’d better get right with the Creator and each other now.
“Out of This World” is truly that, with Preacherman slapping down bump-and-grind grooves as he pines for a lover from another planet who needs to be “a love sensation…a lot of fun…the right vibration…the only one.” “Age of Individualism” has synth beats that MGMT dream of creating.
On the epic “Up and Down,” T.J. Hustler explains how time is crucial to movement. “We move up and down and around,” Preacherman preaches over his electric beats and keyboards that sound like he pulled them out of a video game. T.J. Hustler explains everything from aging and nutrition to relaxation and letting go of attachments in order to expand one’s consciousness. There’s so much to process in this track that I can’t cover all of it, but you’ll be fascinated with every second of it.
As if that weren’t enough, the closer is the fifteen-minute track “The Wrong Way,” in which Jones preaches about the order of the universe and how the planets’ movement is linked to sex, love, and tantric energy. He also warns against us “fuckin’ up this planet” and how we’re doomed to die by fire if we don’t take care of Mother Earth. He even rants against the system (AKA The Man) that has convinced us that different skin colors mean anything, that progress is usually not what it seems, and how the system is set up to bring us down and we let it happen every day. Preacherman returns to his themes of searching for love, even bringing back some of the lyrics from “That’s Good.”
This album is a mind trip, and one you need to take. It somehow combines synth-funk with Don Juan mysticism and it works.
Keep your mind open.
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This year was not only the first time my wife and I traveled to France, it was also the first time we traveled to Levitation France in Angers – a mid-size town about one and a half hours by train southwest of Paris. It was the sixth year of the two-day festival and we’d wanted to go ever since we started attending Levitation Austinin 2013. The dates finally worked out this year, so we made the trip.
First, the festival is held in Le Quai – a great performance space venue in Angers along the Maine River. It has at least five performance areas in it, and the festival uses two of them for shows, two for food trucks, one for merchandise, and one for a bar.
That’s the outside of the venue in the main food truck area. Immediately inside that big open door is the main stage (called the “Forum”). We didn’t start there, however. We started in the smaller performance space (“T400”) at the back with French garage rockers Wild Fox.
Wild Fox
They were the first band on the first day, and they came to make a statement. They threw down wild energy that whipped up the early crowd, ending by kicking apart their drum set, playing with broken strings, and churning out plenty of good feedback.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the new album from La Luz, so we checked out their set on the Forum stage. They had a good crowd, and their California sun-drenched psychedelia was a nice match for the sun coming in through the window behind them.
La Luz
We grabbed a bite from the food trucks (where I scored some tasty Senegalese food), and then headed toward the T400 stage to check out Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. On the way there, we passed Holy Wave doing their soundcheck on the Forum stage. They were playing Interpol‘s “Untitled,” much to the delight of myself and a woman who came running from the back bar to cheer them.
Holy Wave playing Interpol.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Pigs x 7 were so loud and heavy that we had to fade back a bit and leave their set early. I think my wife’s head was about to split open from the intensity. We caught Holy Wave‘s set. They’re another band I’ve wanted to see for a while, and they put on a nice set of Texas psych-rock and seemed to be having a great time.
Holy Wave not playing Interpol.
We then zipped back to the T400 stage to catch most of Prettiest Eyes‘ set. It was our favorite of the night. The electro-punk oddballs from Puerto Rico and Mexico put on a great show with crazy beats, boundless energy, and plenty of swagger. My wife picked up a button from their merchandise table afterwards. I need to get their latest album. John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees said at Levitation Austinthis year that they’re one of his favorite bands. It’s easy to see why when you see them live.
Prettiest Eyes
We headed back to the Forum stage to see the Soft Moon. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the two stages are so close together, and the set times staggered so well, that you can see every band that plays over the course of the two days without trouble (and usually see their full sets). We saw the Soft Moon at our first Levitation Austin festival, back when it was still known as the Austin Psych Fest. It was good to see them again and get a hefty dose of industrial dark wave.
The Soft Moon
We ended the first night with the Blank Tapes, who my wife was keen on seeing after she checked out one of their videos. They have a nice, mellow sound that blends some folk with their psychedelia. My favorite song during the set was one the lead singer wrote to sing to his house plants (“Not marijuana…Regular plants.”).
The Blank Tapes
On day two, we got to Le Quai in time to see Bryan’s Magic Tears start the show. They played a nice set of psych-pop, but hunger won over on us and we headed to the food trucks for some crepes and a great Senegalese chicken sandwich.
Bryan’s Magic Tears
Go! Zilla were on the Forum stage immediately after them, and they provided some nice psychedelic dinner music for us.
Go! Zilla
The biggest surprise of the day, and possibly the whole festival, was the set by Flamingods. They put on a wild set of Middle Eastern, Afrobeat, and psychedelic music that had the members changing instruments so many times that I couldn’t keep track of whom mainly played what.
Flamingods
We then caught Juniore on the Forum stage. They’re an electro / post-punk three piece from France who put on a quirky, neat set with one of them wearing a silver mask the entire time. My wife said it reminded her of a Sleestak from Land of the Lost.
Juniore
We were keen on seeing MIENat the festival since we’d been at their premiere live gig at Levitation Austin earlier this year. They didn’t disappoint and are well in the groove after a lot of touring to support their debut album of dark psychedelia.
MIEN
Another fun surprise was the set by French electro duo Oktober Lieber. They were heavier than I’d expected and threw down some impressive industrial dance grooves.
Oktober Lieber
The rest of the night was full of electronic music for us. First was French musician Flavien Berger – a one-man show of techno beats, vocal effects, and synth work.
Flavien Berger
We ended the night, and our first Levitation France festival, with Radar Men from the Moon, who played nothing but synths, keyboards, and sequencers instead of their usual guitars and drums. It was a great, powerful set that made us run for the merchandise room and buy their first record.
Radar Men from the Moon
We’ll definitely go back, but I’m not sure it will be in the cards for next year. We loved the festival and Angers. Cross it off your bucket list, too.
Keep your mind open.
At Le Quai, the fire extinguishers apparently spray siracha.
Smalltown Supersound Celebrates 25 Years With The Movement Of The Free Spirit Mix by Prins Thomas, Out November 30th
3 Hours & 40 Minute Mix of 80 Tracks Exclusively from the Smalltown Supersound Catalogue
Smalltown Supersound, the Norwegian label run by Oslo-based Joakim Haugland, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, the label is releasing The Movement Of The Free Spirit, an epic new mix album of the Smalltown Supersound catalogue by Prins Thomas, out November 30th. As Thomas’s follow up to Paradise Goulash, The Movement Of The Free Spirit is a 3-disc mix comprised of 80 tracks and 3 hours and 40 minutes of music featuring artists including Sonic Youth, DJ Harvey, Studio, Yoshimi (Boredoms), Kim Gordon, Oneohtrix Point Never, Todd Rundgren, Stereolab, High Llamas, Neneh Cherry, Ricardo Villalobos, Four Tet, Bjørn Torske, Dungen, The Orb, Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Biosphere, Peter Brötzmann, and many more (full track list is below). The mix will be released as a CD box set, digitally (mixed and unmixed) and disc 1 will be available as a double LP.
The title, The Movement Of The Free Spirit, was borrowed from a Bruce Russell (of The Dead C) 10” Smalltown Supersound released in 2000. Russell had borrowed it from the book by legendary Situationist activist and author Raoul Vaneigem. Pre-order The Movement Of The Free Spirit – http://smarturl.it/sts300-preorder Download artwork and press images – http://pitchperfectpr.com/prins-thomas/
The Movement Of The Free Spirit liner notes
Trying To Be Like SST. Since 1993.
I started Smalltown Supersound in 1993 while in high school in Flekkefjord, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants in the south of Norway. There was obviously no supersound in our small town. It was just an ironic name I came up with to release some tapes with lo-fi/noise/bedroom recordings by my brother and his friends. The name was inspired by my hometown and the catalogue number STS was a homage to SST, a label I deeply admired at the time (and still do). Little did I know that I would have to live with that name for the rest of my life.
I started the label before I knew what a record label was. So I gradually learned it by doing. And it was part of me growing up. It might sound like a cliché, but in many ways the label is the soundtrack of my life. Thomas has now made it into a mixtape.
We all hate to see photos of ourselves when we were younger, the bad haircuts and the strange clothes. It is the same thing when you run a label. You constantly look back on things you regret. This mix makes me see the label from the outside in a way I don’t think I have before. And to my surprise the haircuts and the clothes weren’t as bad and strange as I remembered.
I have to admit that I when I listened to it the first time, I was moved. First of all, because of the deep and true love Thomas has put into this mix. Second, because some of these tracks I haven’t heard in 20-25 years. It really felt like revisiting the past. And in a very good way.
Thomas has followed the label since the early beginnings. Back in the days I was always thinking: “He’s a house/disco DJ – why does he want my noise records?”. I realize now I wasn’t smart enough to understand his scope. I didn’t understand it until his mix album Cosmic Galactic Prism, which is one of my favorite mix albums of all time. So for me it was very obvious that Thomas should make the Smalltown Supersound mix. I just couldn’t imagine that he would go this beautifully far with it.
Since day one I have tried to have a red thread run through the releases and the label’s DNA. Most of the time I am probably the only one who sees it. And many times I don’t even see it myself. Now Thomas has found the spiritual unity.
While I have always struggled to describe what the label is, only now – with this mix – I can finally say: this is what it is.
Joakim Haugland Oslo, August 2018
The Movement Of The Free Spirit Tracklist:
Part 1
1. Echo Troopers – Fred Astaire Session (intro)
Deathprod – Orgone Donor
Yoshimi & Mats Gustafsson – Soundless Cries With Their Arms in the Air Yuichiro Fujimoto – Little Sun
2. Bendik Giske – Hole
Supersilent – 13.1
Biosphere – Aura in the Kitchen
Supersilent – 13.1
Elektro Nova/Electro Nova – T03
Bruce Russell – The Movement of the Free Spirit (The 1st Movement)
3. Carmen Villain – Safe
Alexander Rishaug – Time and Place
4. Monopot – Scena Napoletana
5. Continental Fruit – Dear Heart
6. Biosphere – Wyll and Purpose
Lindstrøm – Call Me Anytime (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix)
Deathprod – Orgone Donor
Arp – V2 Slight Return
Monopot – Dronningen
7. Monopot – Dronningen
Jaga Jazzist – Plym
Todd Rundgren – Anything (vocal outtake)
8. Todd Rundgren – Anything (vocal outtake)
9. Todd Rundgren, Emil Nikolaisen & Hans-Peter Lindstrøm – Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Stereolab vs High Llamas Remix)
10. 120 Days – Sleepless Nights
11. Carmen Villain – The Moon Will Always Be There
Continental Fruit – The Moon Was My Only Witness
Mats Gustafsson & Sonic Youth – Part 3 (Contrabass Sax)
12. Erik Wøllo – Ody At Sea
Alexander Rishaug – Satellites
Prins Thomas – B (Sun Araw Saddle Soap Remix)
13. Prins Thomas – B (Sun Araw Saddle Soap Remix)
Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas – Arthur’s Return (long unreleased)
Serena Maneesh – Introspection
Serena Maneesh – Leipziger Love Life (ancient mix)
Mats Gustafsson & Sonic Youth – Part 4 (Voice)
14. Wildest Dreams – Off The Lip
Part 2
1. Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Lovesick (Four Tet Remix) 2. Dungen – Franks Kaktus
3. Idjut Boys – One for Kenny (Bjørn Torske remix)
Idjut Boys – One for Kenny (Idjut Version)
4. Dungen – Alberto Balsam
5. Prins Thomas – H (The Orb Remix)
Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas – Arthur
Kjetil D. Brandsdal – Komboloi
Lindstrøm – No Release (Owen Pallett Remix)
6. Lindstrøm – No release (Owen Pallett Remix) Diskjokke – Cold Out
Yoshinori Hayashi – Bit of Garden
7. Yoshinori Hayashi – Bit of Garden
Diskjokke – Cold Out
Meanderthals – Andromeda (Basic Idjut Version)
Arp – The Past (Version by Studio)
Meanderthals – Andromeda
8. Prins Thomas – C (I:Cube Remix)
9. Lindstrøm – Another Station
10. Bjørn Torske – Se Torsken (Mungolian Jetset Remix) Dan Lissvik – Airwalk
Dan Lissvik – G
11. Neneh Cherry – Slow Release
Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas – K16
12. Bjørn Torske – Totem Expose
13. Kim Hiorthøy – Door Opens Both Ways
14. Toy – Don’t Be
15. Lindstrøm – Raakost (Unknown Mortal Orchestra Version)
Part 3
1. Lindstrøm – The Contemporary Fix (Bjørn Torske Remix)
2. Matt Karmil – Morals
Biosphere – With Their Paddles in a Puddle
Andre Bratten – Minor Misconception
Carmen Villain – Planetarium (Gigi Masin Remix)
3. Andre Bratten – Minor Misconception
Carmen Villain – Planetarium (Gigi Masin Remix) Brian Reitzell – Ozu Choral
4. Carmen Villain – Planetarium (Gigi Masin Remix) Mungolian Jetset – Mush in the Bush
Bjørn Torske – Langt fra Afrika
5. Kelly Lee Owens – CBM
Carmen Villain – Obedience (Bjørn Torske Remix) Elektro Nova/Electro Nova – Phase One
Elektro Nova/Electro Nova – Phase Two Part 3 Brian Reitzell – Honeycomb
6. Prins Thomas – C (Ricardo Villalobos King Crab Remix) Bendik Giske – Adjust
Elektro Nova/Electro Nova – T03
Prins Thomas – C (Ricardo Villalobos Knödel Prince Dub) Mungolian Jetset – Shelton’s on a Bender
7. Neneh Cherry – Everything Is Everything (Villalobos & Loderbauer: Vilod High Blood Pressure Mix)
8. Bjørn Torske – Furu
9. Andre Bratten – Pax Americana
10. Lars Horntveth – Kaleidoscopic
11. Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet – II (Performed by Joe McPhee & Ken Vandermark)
Luaka Bop’s Forthcoming Reissue, Universal Philosophy: Preacherman Plays T.J. Hustler’s Greatest Hits, Out This Friday
(photo credit: Eric Welles-Nystrom)
This Friday sees the release of Luaka Bop’s forthcoming reissue of Preacherman’s (aka TimJones) music, Universal Philosophy: Preacherman plays T.J. Hustler’s Greatest Hits. After sharing “Feel It,” Luaka Bop is pleased to share another cut from the release, titled “Out Of This World.” Stream Preacherman’s “Out Of This World” — https://soundcloud.com/luakabop/preacherman-out-of-this-world/
In 1979, under the name T.J. Hustler, Jones self-released one extremely rare LP, Age Of Individualism. In the years since, he’s released two even rarer CD’s as Preacherman, of which the tracks on this forthcoming reissue are taken.
Throughout the 1980’s, Jones was a technician for IBM in both Las Vegas and San Jose. At night he world perform in the Las Vegas lounges. Thoroughly fascinated by technology and also an engineer in his own right, Jones adapted a Hammond B3 organ to play a Moog synth with some of the organ’s keys (some still played the organ) and also adapted the organ’s foot controlled bass levers to play two Moog synth bass pedals (a failed item Moog made for a few years). Thinking he wasn’t much of a live performer, he had a custom wooden puppet made named T.J. Hustler. Together, Tim Jones/Preacherman and T.J. Hustler would perform long philosophical soliloquies.
These days, Jones is CEO and founder of UpProductions and lives with his 103 year-old mother in Oakland, CA. With his Casio CTK-7200 keyboard, equipped with five wireless mics, a P.A., Jones performs karaoke, easily matching whatever song request you might have.
Perhaps even more so than his first album, UniversalPhilosophy grants listeners access, virtually for the very first time, to Jones’ outlook, his purpose, and the way he lives and experiences life on this planet. The music presented here is otherworldly, homespun, folk art funk; concise and stream-of-consciousness simultaneously. Watch/Listen/Share:
“Feel It” stream – https://youtu.be/35waZLUTbU0 UniversalPhilosophy Teaser Video – https://youtu.be/S4xHRkwlWUY
International experimental musicians Exploded View (Annika Henderson hailing from Berlin and Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin from Mexico City) explore themes of punishment and isolation (physical, mental, social) on their new album Obey.
They open with the instrumental “Lullaby,” which could be the opening theme to a Mario Bava movie, and then slide into the sultry “Open Road,” which could be the opening theme to David Lynch’s next movie. Henderson’s voice hypnotizes you within moments and Quezada and Thulin’s instrumentation ranges from weird lounge jazz to dreamwave. “Dark Stains” brings in krautrock bass and synths while Henderson sings about lost time and a lover’s deceptions.
“What would you do if your love was gone tomorrow and you never found the words to say?” Henderson asks on the haunting synthwave track “Gone Tomorrow,” in which Exploded View implores us to not wait and not to be afraid to find love. The unsettling title track is about obeying not only laws but also the unwritten rules of society (both in the flesh and online) which can get you ostracized if you don’t tow the line. Henderson’s voice seems to be on the outside of the song, like she’s being punished for not conforming. I can’t help but think of another filmmaker when hearing this track – John Carpenter. It seems to flow out of his film They Live.
“Sleepers” is one of the best synthwave tracks of the year, with buzzsaw guitars, sunlight-bright synths, dark bass, and Henderson’s vocals calling out to you through your dreams. “Letting Go of Childhood Dreams” is about the sometimes cold nature of reality. Again, Henderson’s vocals seem distant, almost like she’s fading away as the synths drift into every corner of the room.
The catchy “Raven Raven” is probably being blasted in goth dance clubs across Europe by now. If not, it should be. It’s perfect for dark rooms, make-out sessions, late night Metro rides, and catching the eyes of a raven-haired maiden as she looks at you over a cup of jet black espresso at 2am. “Come On Honey” brings in chaotic guitars and frenetic percussion while Henderson’s vocals keep us and her bandmates grounded (but just barely). The closing track, “Rant,” is appropriately urgent. Henderson implores us one last time to embrace life, love, and beauty. “Life could be so damn simple, if you let it,” she sings.
We’re too busy obeying, however. We’re obeying advertising, 24-hour news cycles, social media, and the expectations and opinions of others and not trusting our own minds, eyes, and hearts.
Stop obeying. Start living. That’s the message of Exploded View’s Obey.
