Mike Dubue has released music under the name HILOTRONS since 2001, in addition to producing and recording for other artists including The Sadies, Ian Tamblyn, and Timber Timbre – which he also plays keyboards and tours with.
Inspired by film scores of the 1960’s and 1970’s, “Lonely Cinema (Omission of Sin)” is a 19 minute fantasia composed of four movements with the third movement as a separate song cycle in two parts.
This piece of music is the fourth addition in a series, following Lonely Cinema I & II and the EP Suicide Kingdom, that HILOTRONS released in 2020 and 2021. Twangy surf guitars and an orchestra of synthesizers weave together ever-changing complex arrangements and soundscapes built on funk and rock rhythms that serve up ethereal melodies and sudden bursts of noise.
Composed, arranged, produced, performed, recorded and mixed at his studio (Studio Cimetière) in a 167 year old church in Quyon, QC, Canada, Michael Dubue creates a soundtrack that takes the listener on an anxious and unpredictable ride, only to arrive in the rain where gloomy characters emerge and an operetta begins.
“Lonely Cinema (Omission of Sin)” features crooner, musician, songwriter, producer and actor Geoffrey Pye (Yellow Jacket Avenger), who also wrote the lyrics and vocals in the song cycle, as well as musicians Mike Feuerstack (Bell Orchestre) on pedal steel and Olivier Fairfield (FET.NAT, Last Ex) on drums.
The Americans are an acclaimed Indie-Folk-Americana band who hail from Los Angeles. This coming Friday July 21the group is set to release their new EP, Strays, with their second single out today for “Kingdom.”
The band’s distinctive, powerful works have captured the attention of a number of stars. They’ve backed Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Ashley Monroe, and Devendra Banhart, and twice joined Ryan Bingham on national tours. They worked closely with Jack White and T Bone Burnett, joining Nas, Elton John, and Alabama Shakes in thePBS primetime series American Epic. Additionally, they appeared on The Late Show (CBS), and their music was featured in the films Texas Killing Fields, A Country Called Home, Little Glory, and the TV series, No Tomorrow.
The upcoming EP Strays is an impressive demonstration of the band’s ability to reinvent rock & roll through the prism of early folk and blues. Patrick Ferris (vocals/guitar), Zac Sokolow (guitar), and Jake Faulkner (bass) deliver an album that lands somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Nathaniel Rateliff.
The Americans’ last two releases, Stand True (2022) and I’ll Be Yours (2017), helped catapult the band into the spotlight. Revered producer T Bone Burnett called them “genius twenty-first century musicians that are reinventing American heritage music for this century. And it sounds even better this century.” Acclaimed music journalist Greil Marcus (Pitchfork) writes, “From the first rolling guitar notes, carrying sadness and defiance like dust, this sweeps me up: I want to know everything about where that feeling came from, and where it’s going.”
Patrick’s resonant vocals shine again on the hard-hitting second single “Kingdom.” Layered with ripping guitar riffs from Zac and exquisite bass grooves from Jake, the song examines the power of one-way desire. Patrick snarls, “You hold the key to the kingdom / Wrapped ’round your wrist like a weapon.”
“We write our songs inside-out,” says Patrick. “We grab hold of something minuscule and primitive—a simple turn of phrase or an unusual beat—and try to build a song around it. It’s inefficient, but when it works, it works.”
Strays is an EP that’s full of catchy hooks, soulful vocals, and innovative arrangements. The Americans have once again proved themselves to be one of the most exciting and talented bands in the roots music scene.
The Lost Messiahs have been steadily establishing their reputation in the music industry, and their most recent offering, “Radiance of Moon,” serves as evidence of their ongoing evolution as a collective. This captivating and evocative composition, accompanied by an enthralling music video, possesses a haunting beauty that resonates deeply, drawing the listener into a realm of self-reflection and intense feelings. The track begins with a gentle guitar, its delicate notes beckoning you into its embrace. Its slow, contemplative melody immediately seizes your attention, drawing you deep into its world. Frontman James O’Connor’s vocals enter the mix, commanding the spotlight with their power and emotion. His delivery of the lyrics exudes raw honesty and vulnerability, forging a connection that is both captivating and relatable. The accompanying vocals of bandmate Martha Cummins swirl around like a gust of strong wind, as prominent handclaps find their way into the release.
Ollie Plunkett of The Lost Messiahs shared some insight on the release: “Radiance of Moon” was like a little drop of magic dropped onto my guitar. From the moment I started playing the guitar riff I got the vibe immediately and the lyrics and the sentiment just flowed like a natural spring. The song is a love song and is written from the perspective of gratitude for finding one’s soulmate in life. I could visualize myself in a beautiful garden with the most beautiful person in my life in front of me. and the moon’s rays outlining her beauty. For the video I wanted to capture in some way that scene but didn’t want to represent it too literally. So the video is a bit more abstract but I think it still captures the feeling . The transitions between each frame is deliberately slow to allow the lyrical content to gradually reveal itself.”
As the song unfolds, the instrumentation gradually intensifies. Drums, bass, and layered guitar work seamlessly join in, infusing the track with a growing urgency and tension. The accompanying video intrigues with stunning visually imagery with the lone, captivating character, making their way throughout the world. The intricate video seamlessly aligns with the song, as if it was tailor-made for it. Its imagery evokes a nostalgic ambiance, while incorporating visual metaphors and symbolic elements that enrich the overall experience, adding layers of depth. The chorus rises with exceptional strength, its unforgettable hook etching itself in your mind long after the song fades. The interplay of haunting vocals and intricate guitar work weaves an ethereal and otherworldly atmosphere, evoking a sense of mysticism and wonder that truly captivates the senses.
Boston’s Best Not Broken has built a reputation for high energy shows and catchy, power pop/rock original songs. Drawing from Brit Pop, Alternative Rock, New Wave, and their own unique brand of singer-songwriter sensibility, the band crafts soundscapes that appeal to fans of artists ranging from The Killers to Ed Sheeran.
Their thoughtful and, at times amusing, lyrics match the upbeat nature of the instrumentation, creating a fresh musical odyssey that is infectiously fun. Their live performances showcase the band’s contagious energy and often evolve into interactive dance parties where the onstage antics compel fans to rock out and let loose.
Their new song “I Don’t Belong,” and the video, explores adolescence and finding where you belong. It’s a tribute to those that never quite fit in in high school, but ultimately find their way. It’s also tribute to the many aspiring rock stars that never quite make it but have a treasure trove of memories to look back on.
We got the chance to speak with Best Not Broken about their fun and relatable video for “I Don’t Belong”:
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
The song “I Don’t Belong” is a satire of a boy who graduates in the 90s, doesn’t align fully with any particular clique, dreams of being a rock star, but turns out to be just an average guy – which ultimately isn’t that bad! The song is intended to shine a spotlight on our inevitable silly high school regrets. The lyrics inspired the light-hearted, nostalgic video… which kind of wrote itself!
What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
This song was dripping nostalgic references to the 80s and 90s and we felt compelled to bring them to life in the video. There was no shortage of visuals to choose from – from the Rubiks cube to the mullets… sadly they all felt to natural!
What was the process of making this video?
We knew we wanted the video to be shot in a high school. So the first challenge was finding a high school that would actually let us do it. We had the good fortune of getting access to Souhegan High School in Amherst, New Hampshire, which really was designed perfectly for our intended scenes. We hired 106 Studios to handle the video production and collectively brought in our actors and built out the drama. We pre-ordered a bung of 80s and 90s paraphernalia, and after two days of camera work, we had enough footage to tell our little story. We were so lucky to find all the awesome actors and contributors. If you haven’t yet tried to shoot an era-specific nostalgia video, we highly recommend it.. ha!
Singer-songwriter Stephen Jaymes might be best described as Charles Bukowski ditching whiskey for psychedelic mushrooms while feverishly ingesting Rumi poetry and Phil Ochs records. The LA-based artist is a punk poet; a wounded-romantic; a sonic noir auteur and a post-apocalyptic hippie. He is a gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, and producer. His music exudes the stylish playfulness of Prince with clever turns of phrases and occasional funk flashes, but it also conjures the stateliness and mystique of Leonard Cohen. Film and television editor Christal Khatib (Scandal, Transparent) hears “both of those ghosts and Johnny Cash too – all visiting the same body.”
His newest song “Chief Inspector,” and the accompanying video, is a noir inspired Jungian tale of a man who once locked up his shadow and is now hunted by it.The video reaches back in time to say a little something about the present moment. Wanting to evoke the LA noir imagery used in the song’s lyrics, the singer and the video’s producer Ross Kolton, were drawn to the iconic 1973 Robert Altman classic “The Long Goodbye” for its visually unique take on noir in the sunshine.
Easter eggs and direct references include a shot of Jaymes leaving the same tower apartment complex where Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe eked out a living. The film classic is noteworthy for looking back to the 40s to shine a light on the (then) current 70s culture. Similarly, Kolton and Jaymes look back to the 70s to indirectly reflect a modern Instagramed world, where a noir thriller of dark realities continues to unfold, now through millions of sunny lenses.
We spoke with Stephen Jaymes about the new video for “Chief Inspector,” which you can watch below:
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
In a nutshell, this is what happens when you start digging deeper into Jung while watching the Inspector Morse series. The song is about the choice we make to lock up a part of ourselves to achieve our (often stupid) objectives, and how that shadow part always escapes and hunts us down later. Morse is a hero of mine, the original “true detective” of modern television who is chased as much by his own ghosts as he is by the flesh and blood criminals. It was a rare instance where the lyrics all pretty much fell out in one go. I’d pay to have that experience every time. And what fell out was a “Cape Fear” scenario: Robert Mitchum is not happy; and he’s out to get you; and he’s you. In my case, I later realized, my shadow was hunting me down to demand I start writing and playing more music.
What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The video is the result of my collaboration with LA-based filmmaker and music video producer Ross Kolton. We both have a deep love of noir, so we were looking for a reference point that we could use. We wanted to literalize the song’s dark noir imagery and psychological tension, but also reflect how noir films frequently juxtapose that darkness against sunny LA. Our eureka moment came in the form of Ross’s idea to use the location from Robert Altman’s 1973 “The Long Goodbye” in the video. From that seed of an idea we found our story, and the video ended up being an homage to that film in many ways (toxic suitcase MacGuffin notwithstanding).
What was the process of making this video?
The goal was to make a tight doppelgänger drama that reaches back to “The Long Goodbye” to illustrate the tension between today’s dark realities and their sunny, Instagrammed exterior. Ross is super organized, so many of the shots were his ideas that we basically tested in the field. He has an approach to film that really synchronizes with my approach to songwriting: both of us leave a ton of room to capture the magical accidents in our creative process. On shoot day we started in the Hollywood hills where we paired a condo interior with the actual exterior of Elliott Gould’s apartment complex. We had a location waiting on the Westside for the “arrival” part of the story, so we literally worked our way east to west through Hollywood, stopping at some planned places and others that jumped out at us as we drove around. By the time we had finished with all the exterior “story” shots, we were exhausted. After he put together the first cut, Ross decided that the lip sync performance shots reflected that exhaustion. So we reshot the performance, weeks later, after I’d buzzed my head. This resulted not only in a treatment that better reflected our “sunny noir” aesthetic, but also emphasized better the doppelgänger theme because I look so different. Just another example of staying loose and allowing experimentation (and some director perfectionism) to work its magic. Thankfully I had no deadline as we hadn’t set a release date for the song yet.
LA based band The Americans take over McCabe’s Guitar Shop this Sunday, July 16, to play a very special release show for their EP, Strays (out July 21). At the show attendees will be able to purchase an advance copy of the vinyl that evening.
The night also features special guest, singer-songwriter Gill Landry as the opener.
The band’s distinctive, powerful works have captured the attention of a number of stars. They’ve backed Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Ashley Monroe, and Devendra Banhart, and joined Ryan Bingham on four national tours. They worked closely with Jack White and T Bone Burnett, joining Nas, Elton John, and Alabama Shakes in the PBS/BBC primetime series American Epic. They have appeared on The Late Show (CBS), and their music was featured in the films Texas Killing Fields, A Country Called Home, Little Glory, and the TV series No Tomorrow.
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