Step into the smoke-choked back alley of some half-remembered 1940s picture and you’ll find Wendy Bevan already waiting there, cigarette glowing like a dying star, voice curling out of the shadows before the picture even starts rolling. The English singer doesn’t just sound like Film Noir—she *is* it. That low, velvet-and-venom delivery pulls you into rain-slick streets and half-lit rooms long before any video ever hits the screen. You don’t watch her songs; you get abducted by them.

She’s already walked the atmospheric high wire with Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran on earlier projects, learning how to make beauty feel dangerous and silence feel loaded. Now she’s weaponized every one of those lessons on her forthcoming album Alone With The Unknown, due September. This isn’t background music for people who like pretty darkness. This is the full descent—torch songs for the terminal hour, melodies that feel like confessions whispered through a two-way mirror.

We talked the imagery, the history, the exact corner of the night where her music first grew teeth. The lyrics don’t just flirt with philosophy; they drag it into a back booth and interrogate it under a bare bulb. Love. Bravery. The long, hard stare into the self. Bevan turns those big, bruising themes into something you can taste—bitter coffee, cold metal, the sudden rush of air when the door finally swings open.

Alone With The Unknown doesn’t ask you to listen. It dares you to step inside and see if you make it back out the same.

Spotify youtube instagram

#wendybevan #hooverphonic #nickrhodes #duranduran #filmnoir

It's when you go to a concert that you know is going to be crazy, and before the main act even takes the stage, you are prepped by an opener that just knocks your socks off.

That was my experience with "The Rubin Brothers", Colescott and AJ, two Boston based Vaudevillian performers when the warmed up for Haute & Freddy. They delighted the crowd with and old school circus performance, riding unicycles while playing a piccolo trumpet, and an upright bass.

Nothing could have prepared us for that evening anyway, but these two managed to get everyone in the mood, laughing and asking for people to heckle them with suggestions for songs they wrote and performed on the fly.

They were lauded with their audition to American Idol by Lionel Ritchie and Katy Perry (She did invite them to perform at her daughter's birthday party), and in the meantime they are charming the audiences across the country who are lucky enough to catch them opening for Haute & Freddy.

We talked about the almost forgotten art of Vaudeville performances, improvisation, and we even geeked out about old recording methods dating back to almost 130 years.

Comedic, and rapid firing of answers, these brothers will give you a show you will never forget.

website facebook youtube tiktok

#therubinbrothers #hauteandfreddy #vaudeville #bestshowyouwilleversee

Hailing from Sydney Australia veteran vocalist Jacqui Hunt has just released her new opus "Desiderium" a darkwave/dreampop masterpiece.

Jacqui Hunt was the vocalist for the goth tinged band "Single Gun Theory" who I got into 10 years into their tenure. (They hadn't broken through in the states till 1996). She invested a great deal of time into writing the music, and delivering some phayntastique recordings.

Her voice is angelic, sounding like Kate Bush meets Dot Allison, and makes this album a sheer pleasure to listen to. Her lyrics evoke imagery from so many different mythological sources, you feel like you just finished a masterclass in literature.

This album is one you do not want to miss.

bandcamp linktree Facebook youtube

#jacquihunt #billleeb #frontlineassembly #octoberproject #singleguntheory #katebush

Iranian American refugee SHAB has released her new album "One Suitcase", with a slough of great singles. The album cover tells so much of her story as a refugee to where she is now.

This album has some great songs with some wild themes, "Say It With Your Chest", the newly released single "Perfume", use your imagination, they are some fun tracks.

She tells a heart wrenching personal story with "Skin and Bones", that will really make you think what is important in life.

Lot's of lines about Ferraris, riding motorcycles, and even a video shoot in what almost was Marrakech Morroco.

Shab has a wonderful creative side with her visuals and storytelling, and she even borrowed some of her crew from Lady GaGa..

Dare I say, she's got a heart as big as Texas, SHAB is a passionate advocate for refugees and women’s rights. As an ambassador for the UK-based charity Choose Love (www.choose.love), SHAB is donating all of her profits from purchases of One Suitcase to support displaced people around the world.

instagram facebook youtube spotify

If you find a favorite sound, you want nothing more than an endless supply of that sound. I discovered Ashen Ringlets on youtube just grooving on Cocteau Twins, they did some covers, and I was hooked.

I have followed them for years, and talked to them intermittently about projects in the hopper. Having released an EP Of original material titled "Waltzing Days in Maidenhead" last year, and now a single "Waiting for the time" (complete with a B-side) they are well on their way of building a wonderful and respectable catalog.

Hailing from Oklahoma where there isn't a large community of 4AD type music followers, Joe and Ellen manage to really stand out, and have managed to write some powerful music, lyrically that just crushes you sometimes, and music that makes you feel like you are floating around, on a sea of cotton candy, stirred by a peppermint pig in Las Vegas.

With Joe on most guitars and synth and sequencers, Ellen on bass and vocals, Ashen Ringlets are just one of those bands to love the moment you first hear them.

website Bandcamp soundcloud Instagram Facebook Youtube

#ashenringlets #johnfryer #4adrecords #4ad #cocteautwins #lizfraser #robynguthrie #gonzomusicjournalism

Barry Andrews and Carl Marsh are back in the studio putting together their 19th studio album "Things With Heads" on full throttle and this is the last week to contribute to make it happen.

This album has some darker Shriekback material, and I even got to hear a great Carl Marsh spoken word to music "Plutonium Days". This is an intense opus from what I have already listened to, and will probably have all the anxiety in the world you feel right now, crafted into 9 songs.

See the link to donate below, and please help out.

https://shriekback.com/shriekback-album-19-crowdfunder

#shriekback #sacredcities #barryandrews #carlmarsh #crowdfunding

The Wonderful ever puzzling no filter included Madeline Rhodes, aka "MuMu" has just released a musical tell all memoire called "The Brothel".

MuMu is a New York based queer feminist artist who was raised in one of the most feminine centric environments in Harlem that they called "The Brothel", with in your face songs like "Free The Nip" and some antics not meant for polite company.

The Brothel is her spoken word and musical project in coming to terms with her father, mother, and a broken past, trying to pick up the pieces in preparing for motherhood. We had plenty of jabs around these ideas, as we usually do, but in the same time, we both were able to unload a lot of feelings that obviously needed to be said by both of us.

Her courage in this effort is monumental, and I am honored that I was able to share this space with her in talking about all of this. This episode is for anyone who has not been able to connect with a distant father, she shows in her sheer vulnerability how to mend fences, and recover in places you never thought possible.

My hat is off to MuMu for this one.

@madelinerhodesmusichttps://www.facebook.com/madelinerhodesmusic/

https://tr.ee/QgLw-wIeTJ

This program may contain copyrighted material which has not always been authorized by the copyright owners. We use this material of the artists we feature for interviews. This is done to promote these artists, and thus we believe that this constitutes "Fair Use" of copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US copyright Law. There is NO copyright infringement intended.#mumu #madelinerhodesmusic #harlemmusicians #thebrothel #queersingers

I got a text from my friend Ty Herndon about a new release he and some friends have just hit the world with.

Michael Passons is the former vocalist for the top selling Christian chart topping band "Avalon". He was forced out of the band by refusing to go through conversion therapy.

He came out of retirement from singing to re record this one with the true message of the lyrics with Ty Herndon and fellow Avalon bandmate Melissa Greene, and it went to the top of the Christian music charts, where NO-ONE was expecting it to go.

The stir it caused on the internet brought out so much love and support as the comments were overwhelmingly positive, with so many people in the Christian music fanbase saying it helped them to find healing and once again beauty in a classic song.

I got to interview Ty and Michael, and it was pretty monumental in the content. Also Ty and I managed to stay on target and not let our ADHD get us off on tangents. This was a wonderful interview and it belongs to anyone who is searching for healing outside of the traditional box of "Christian Values", as even the guys who wrote the song let them know that this was the true meaning of why they wrote it. SO, Happy Pride everyone, and enjoy.

http://www.tyherndon.com/

http://www.michaelpassons.com/

https://www.instagram.com/michaelpassons/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/melissagreene/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/tyherndonofficial/?hl=en

#tyherndon #avalontheband #melissagreene #michaelpassons #gaysingers #testifytolove