The Parlor - Blind

By Abigail Clyne

Lately I’ve been trying to step into my life. To fully take ownership of who I am and not care what people think. It’s a difficult process, so much so that I recently spent an hour in Grand Central terminal debating which Metro North train to jump on. I wanted to run away, and spend time in that magical limbo that occurs when you go on a long road trip. To relax in those stolen hours and only worry about arriving safely to your destination, if you even have one. Instead, I went and bought myself lunch. On some level, I knew running away from the city wouldn’t solve anything. 

The Parlor’s video for their new single, “Blind,” captures the freedom and loneliness of running away. Beautiful footage of the American West as seen from a moving car is intercut with the band members, Eric Krans and Jen O’Connor, joyously goofing off for the camera. The stark landscapes bring up the dueling emotions of peace and unease. The repeated lyric at the end, “somewhere near, somewhere far, ‘til we’re blind,” played over the empty vistas, beckons you to sit in the discomfort and ask yourself what’s next?

Check out The Parlor in their upcoming shows!

Thursday, October 11th: Troy, NY // Brown’s Brewing Company // w/ The Moth and the Flame

Saturday, October 13th: Newport, RI // Parlor Bar // w/ Drone Dolores

The YeahTones - Lightning

By Jordan Feinstein

There’s something about classic rock that’s like a megaphone to my body telling it “sway and bob your head now, it’s not really up to you, away you go.” I’ve always attributed it to the catchy hooks, bombastic guitar, driving drums–all the elements that define rock and roll. “Lightning,” the new single by Brooklyn punk-rockers The Yeahtones, has all of these boxes checked. It’s a fun, loud rock song about a girl making frontman Jake Pinto feel like he’s been struck by lightning. But it got me thinking about what it is in good rock and roll that can make your body not care that you’ve heard all of these elements a million times. What makes it not just a bunch of checked boxes in a list of standard elements of a rock song?

The answer is certainly confidence. The confidence to go “here’s our loud rock song about a girl. It’s got drums, bass, guitar, and a catchy hook” and make it something that doesn’t feel new, but kicks enough ass that it doesn’t really matter. The Brooklyn music scene right now is awash with artists diving deeper and deeper into music as therapy, songwriting as a method of introspection. It’s important to be able to find an artist who writes something that makes you feel less alone, which is at the core of our generation’s attachment to music that we know our parents would find almost nauseating in its depths of self-examination. It’s fun to hear a song not concerned with that, a song that makes you feel only that you’re in dark room with loud music and sticky floors, and a beautiful girl just looked at you for the first time.

Check out “Lightning” on Spotify and Apple Music

JW Francis - When The Train Goes By

By Gerard Marcus

Every year, sometimes more than once, I get the sudden urge to leave New York City. Maybe I step in one too many piles of what I hope is dog crap, or one to many trains are down making it impossible for me to get anywhere, or I’ve gotten tired of listening to my drunken neighbor scream at the TV for the fourth night in a row over a sports match that is happening in a completely different country. The point is I have to go. I’ll run up into the mountains, or down to DC to visit family, or maybe out west. But no matter where I go, I inevitably get to a point where I miss the city. I’ll miss the usual things, the parks, the culture, the manic energy. But usually what I miss the most are the simpler things, the small reminders of what it means to live here.

JW Francis new video for “When The Train Goes By” is a simple love letter to a very complicated place. Made from footage of various NYC trains, this video scratches the perfect nostalgic itch for anyone who’s lived in the city. The simplicity of subject allows JW Francis to showcase a crucial element of NYC life in a tasteful way. Neither the song nor video scream “I’M IN NEW YORK LOOK HOW COOL IT IS,” but instead present it more as a “this is my life, and this is what I see around me.” New York can be crazy and hectic, but if you can find a moment to come out of that and focus on something simple, there’s endless possibilities for beauty. 

For more JW Francis beauty, you can pre-save his upcoming EP on Spotify here!

Donna Blue - 1 2 3

Gerard Marcus

Passion is a strange emotion-it hits fast and can disappear even faster. Yes, there can be transient waves of lust to buoy that initial spark, but what do you do when it disappears and you want more? How do you resurrect the look they gave you the first time you met? Can you recreate that initial lust, or are you doomed to hook up in its shadow. Dripping with 60’s yé-yé nostalgia, Donna Blue’s new single ‘1 2 3’ is a saucy examination from someone wanting more.

Dances - Never Sexier Than When I'm Alone

Gerard Marcus

You meet someone and immediately hit it off. It quickly becomes almost shocking to think of a time before or after them. You start spending more and more time together, growing more and more connected, bringing an ease to life you’ve been looking for for a while. The only problem is that they now have to go. Far away. It’s a weird feeling, wanting to be near someone when you can’t. That rawness of a recent lover lost to distance is the central theme of Dances new single, “Never Sexier Than When I’m Alone.”

The video, directed by Alec MacDonald, is an intimate portrait of longing. Dances' lead singer and songwriter Trevor Vaz sits alone in local Bushwick dance spot Mood Ring contemplating moments that he wishes to share with a distant lover. As the night progresses and the alcohol flows, he finds himself wandering towards the back room alone, thrashing around while draped in silver and gold ribbons. Production choices like having Vaz function as his own bartender, or the subtle realty vs. fantasy element of watching himself on security footage, drive home the track's deep longing. The video beautifully portrays the solitude of yearning to be somewhere else, anywhere else, with the person you love. 

Venus Figurine comes out 10/12 via the new label Jubilee Gang with a release show on 10/13 at Trans-Pecos with Zenizen and Realworld