All Eyes On
Bad Mothers’ ‘Dirty Rock’ Dreams
Musicians often bristle at being compared to other bands, but not Bad Mothers. “I think the Queens of the Stone Age reference makes all of us pretty happy,” singer/guitarist Matt Dalton says about recent write-ups on Bad Mothers’ liberating but masterful brand of dirty rock ‘n’ roll. “We’re pretty big Queens fans, but honestly, [the band’s sound] really is an amalgamation of a huge swath of influences.” He looks to drummer Brian Chiappinelli, perched next to him on the sofa. “Like Brian is heavily into hip hop. Me, what I listen to changes a lot. Our other guitarist [Patrick Flores], he’s very into neo-soul right now. Our bass player, Kevin [Bohen], is very much into bands like IDLES and heavier metal and punk and hardcore. When we get together and make music, it sounds like us, a heavier,...
The Red Pears Arrive With You Thought We Left
The Red Pears have a thing for authenticity. Since 2014, Henry Vargas (vocals and guitar), Jose Corona (drums), and Patrick Juarez (bass) have been steadily pounding it out at packed house parties, backyard shows, and DIY venues around Southern California. Along the way, they’ve earned a reputation for intimate and intense performances, organically growing into one of the region’s most exciting live acts, playing SXSW, Tropicalia, and Coachella. Their brand of fiery garage rock is influenced by ‘90s alternative, grunge, and the early 2000s work of The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, and Arctic Monkeys, but impressively manages to carve out its own unique identity based on honesty, humor, and hard work. The Red Pears also have a thing for long album titles. Their self-released 2...
Charlotte Cornfield Finds Growth in Letting Go
Charlotte Cornfield and I are sitting at a picnic table, in a quiet park at the end of a busy street in Toronto in the waning days of the fall. Over coffee and out of earshot of midday dog walkers, we’re discussing her new album, Highs in the Minuses. Cornfield is affable and disarmingly laid-back, both over coffee in the sun-soaked corner of a park and in her approach to crafting the 11 songs on the record. “I just tried to capture the essence of the tunes without adding too much or fixating too much on sounds.” Highs In The Minuses is Cornfield’s fourth album overall and first for U.S.-based Polyvinyl Records (in a co-release with Double Double Whammy) and like so many records released in the tail end of 2021, the process started at the onset of the pandemic. In March 2020, Cornfield was...
Micro TDH Wants to Leave His Mark With 9
Nine years ago, Micro TDH was rapping in the streets of Venezuela with dreams of stardom. After seeing his profile rise in his native country, the rapper born Fernando Daniel Morillo Rivas in the city of Mérida, spent all of his money at the time to travel to Miami and be at the heart of the industry. Thanks to his determined spirit and soulful voice, the 22-year-old has worked his way onto stages across the U.S. Micro TDH’s journey culminates in his new album 9, in which he flexes his fierce rap flow while exploring genres like R&B, reggaeton, funk, and rock music. With Venezuela underrepresented in the Latin music scene, the underdog is aiming to be the next big Latin pop star. “I wanted to demonstrate the versatility that I have in music,” Micro TDH tells SPIN over Zoom. “That I can...
Holly Humberstone #SadGirlAutumn Is A Way of Life
Holly Humberstone just got off a flight from Copenhagen, where she had just performed her first show in Denmark. Onstage, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter wears fishnet gloves and platform boots. On Zoom, she’s in a fleece adorned with puppies. Despite coming off of a long flight and sitting in gridlock traffic, she appears refreshed and cheerful, with her hair neatly pulled back and complexion free of make-up. Over the last year, Humberstone has amassed over 150 million streams, performed on various late-night shows, earned recognition as an up-and-coming artist by BBC, Vevo, YouTube, and Apple Music, and taken on headlining shows around the world. Her sophomore EP, The Walls Are Way Too Thin, was released on November 12. She writes her own songs and performs on stage with no accom...
The Velveteers’ Reverb Heavy Debut Is a Confident Sign of What’s to Come
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. But that turned into a bit of a problem when, at age 16, Colorado-based guitarist/vocalist Demi Demitro came up with the novel concept of backing herself with — not one — but two drummers in a bluesy garage trio she dubbed The Velveteers. It’s taken the band six years to finally release its reverb-soaked debut, Nightmare Daydream, on Easy Eye Sound, the label of Grammy-winning Black Keys anchor Dan Auerbach. It was produced (and partially co-written) by Auerbach in his Nashville studio, as well. But not all mousetrap enthusiasts had such honorable intentions. Thinking about the nefarious, unforgiving music business, Demitro sighs, wondering how she managed to last this long. “It’s just taken a lot of hard work and determ...
Blue Rojo’s Sad Boy Blues Result in a Colorful Debut
Blue Rojo and his sad boy album are pushing boundaries in Latin pop music. The Mexican-American singer reckons with an unrequited queer romance in his debut album, Solitario, that was released on November 17. Blue Rojo dances with the darker side of the genre through elements of emo, punk, reggaetón, trap, and trance music. “I was so in love with this straight man who was not giving me anything,” he tells SPIN over Zoom from a Mexico City coffee shop. “It was kind of toxic and dramatic, but the Blue Rojo influence is there to make it into a spiritual journey to overcome the heartbreak.” While new artists align with major labels in hopes of getting to the point of releasing an album, Blue Rojo released Solitario just two months after signing with Universal Music Group. It was his moody LP t...
Courtney LaPlante on Spiritbox’s Rapid Ascension
Wearing a gray hoodie with her signature blue hair resting on her shoulders and sporting minimal makeup against the backdrop of the Vancouver apartment that she shares with husband and guitarist Mike Stringer, Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante is the picture of comfortable and relaxed after a frenzied month promoting the band’s debut album, Eternal Blue. An emotional debut album in the metal genre, Eternal Blue charted high in multiple categories on the Billboard charts (No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 in both Hard Rock and Rock) and equally well around the world, which is something that surpassed LaPlante’s expectations. “We have really high expectations, high goals for our band and our secret, scary goals that we would never tell anybody [about] as well,” LaPlante tells SPIN ove...
Joy Crookes Is Immortalizing Her Memories
Like anyone else, Joy Crookes’ mind is built on memories. But her memories aren’t like anyone else’s. They’re vivid, hyper-specific down to the article of clothing she was wearing at the time, and detailed enough to let her hold on to those moments for just a little longer — sometimes even long enough to become a fragment of her discography. The 23-year-old soulful South London singer-songwriter fills her work with the detailed anecdotes that run her mind. Even bringing up the name of a song like “When You Were Mine,” from her lifetime-in-the-making debut album, last month’s Skin, brings them all racing back. “I remember what I was wearing,” Crookes tells SPIN over Zoom. “I remember how my hair was. I remember everything I bought. The food we ordered into the studio.” [embedded content][em...
Nation of Language Face the Future With A Way Forward
There was a slight air of apprehension as hundreds of masked fans packed into the Lodge Room, a gorgeous 1920s Italian Renaissance Revival-style venue in a former Masonic Lodge in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It’s a warm, inviting space, complete with cherry wood paneling, hand-painted murals featuring scenes of ancient Egypt, and a huge golden pentagram on the ceiling. But, it was clear that at least a few folks in the crowd were still getting used to being out at shows again. A long-haired man at the bar slathered his hands with sanitizer before double fisting Jack and Cokes. A hipster couple had a muffled argument about where to safely stand and still see the stage. A fashionable woman with fogged glasses stumbled into the VIP area. They’d all come to see Nation of Lan...
Seafoam Walls: How Thurston Moore, Miami Culture Aided ‘Caribbean Jazzgaze’ Band
Before the serendipitous meeting that spawned a record deal, Seafoam Walls’ Jayan Bertrand was going through a “particularly rough patch” — one that any musician might have interpreted as a cosmic middle finger. “I was looking for a job, and on the way to one of the interviews I’d gotten called back for, I got into an accident and totaled my car that I’d only had a few weeks,” the singer-guitarist tells SPIN. “I walked away mostly unscathed — it was just a little pain in my thigh and my wrist. But on top of that, I was still in my job search. And III Points was in a few weeks.” The festival, one of Miami’s largest, felt like a potential turning point for the self-described “Caribbean jazzgaze” band. But entering that situation with a cloud hovering over them “didn’t feel good.” ...
I Have Seen the Future, And It’s Willie Nelson’s Granddaughter
Like the “ethical” (their word) psychotropic drug industry, the music recording business exists to discover, refine, and distribute new product to alter minds and enhance well-being. So when a euphoric sound makes its way into anyone’s ears — let alone the best new music I heard in years — without the benefit of professional dispensers or promoters, you have to wonder: “How did that happen?” Sure, loads of musical artists pop up on the charts straight out of their first basement recording sessions, but that’s not the case for an original, addictive hybrid style you could call “punk ’n’ billy,” as practiced by a veteran crew known as The Raelyn Nelson Band (RNB). Imagine three blond, three-chord rocker fellers backing a hot brunette neo-Linda Ronstadt/Rosanne Cash lead singer, to tunes out ...
