Ricky Mendoza’s “MOVE” single tightly-illustrated in new music video

I’m really digging the non-stop electric sizzling tempo of Ricky Mendoza’s new music video for his song “MOVE”. The track (off Mendoza’s album THE NEW HURT) was already an absolute burner to begin with, buoyed as much by the arrangement as Mendoza’s rattlesnake rasping vocals taking assertive center stage. The Mexican-American folk-punker brings out the best of both genres on the single by carrying a Clash-like energy, as well as a folk singer-songwriter’s lyrical sensibilities.

What I mean by that is emblematically displayed in Mendoza’s new video, which finds the artist playing both the pro- and antagonist of the story. In this battle of good and evil, Mendoza stays on the run and just ahead of the representation of his fears and anxieties. As an introvert since childhood, the analogy is a familiar one to me; an ever-constant battle of action versus brain chemistry locked in perpetual duel.

But as this production also shows, you can only flee from those emotions for so long before there must be confrontation. And in true punk fashion, Mendoza decides to square off and run down his foe like a knight mid-joust. At first glance that may perhaps seem like the most linear, straightforward route of response, but in our many potential life situations and dilemmas often the best way out is to wind up going straight through.

And initially, that concept can seem like a scary one. Perhaps even the most feared of all. But Ricky Mendoza’s “MOVE” shows us (as both viewers and listeners) that with a little courage, a dash of grit and a hint of vinegar, we can emerge on the other side better than from where we started.

It’s hard, but the relief at the end is worth the risk of the trek.

For more on Ricky, check him out on Facebook and Instagram, or find out more at his website rickymendoza.org.

November 10, 2021 0

Fay unveils new single “Intuition” in exclusive OTBEOTB premiere

One of my favorite segments to incorporate here on the digital pages of this website involves getting to pull back the curtain and exclusively debut new music for you all to enjoy.

That’s because, on one hand, there’s a certain type of privilege in getting to say you’re the “first” to hear something you want to tell others about. Not to mention, there’s also a particular level of creative trust involved in getting an artist to decide you’re the right person to champion the initial flag flight of their latest gestating endeavor.

And in the land of this freelancing hobbyist of melody I fancy myself to be, that’s a pretty special honor to receive.

But I digress. Today we’re here to discuss and celebrate the premiere of Rändi Fay’s new single “Intuition”. It’s not only the second teaser off of her forthcoming February 20th full-length LP of the same name, it’s also being dropped in tandem with a brand new music video you’ll see here as well in just a matter of paragraphs.

At first glance, as a new release “Intuition” has a vibe like the first initial tendril-ing of the freshness of forthcoming spring as we still sit prone in the doldrums of yet another January winter. The track carries a lightly bright, upright sparkle of waving up-and-down synthesizer grooves that buoy the steady pep of Fay’s vocal in a layer of sunny, well-crafted electronica pop veneer.

But, despite having an arrangement reminiscent of a slice of spacey, 8-bit throwback, “Intuition” still has a straight-up knack for the basic structural heart of what makes a pop song so infectiously memorable. In fact, shortly after my first several listens to the song, I found its themes of love and connection rolling around and around in my head like a thought refusing to be let loose well after the final notes had faded.

And in our world the way it’s been today, we could all use a little more of those topics in our lives. Get your little dosage right here by watching the music video below.

January 9, 2020 0

Owen-Glass Captures Acoustic Magic on “So American” Video

Today it’s my pleasure to release the premiere of “So American”, a brand new music video from the band Owen-Glass. This is a cover the group did of a song originally written and performed by Portugal. The Man off their 2011 album In The Mountain In The Cloud.

Portugal’s version is a bouncy, psychedelic joy-rave somewhere between The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize?” and The Kinks. But while Owen-Glass’ take may enter the starting gate acoustically similar to the original, it proceeds to lean away from building up and chooses instead to embrace a more bare-boned folk edge.

The video takes hold of a similar strategy as there are a few mixing visuals of the band, but nothing that takes away from the mood and strength of the performance. The upfront intimacy of the moment feels very much like an installment of NPR’s “Tiny Desk” series, which further lays vulnerable “So American” and its lyrical critiques of hypocrisy and dysfunction in these United States.

For a song that debuted in 2011, those themes almost feel more relevant from where we sit today in 2019. But without any further insight from me here’s the video from “So American”, as well as a quote from Owen-Glass singer-songwriter Kelly Wayne Conley on why they chose to cover the track.

“We wanted to sort of pay tribute to some of the songwriters and bands that had a major impact on us, and John Gourley was an obvious standout. Portugal. The Man’s story is really special to us, because we followed them from the very beginning and now, after more than a decade of grinding on the road, promoting real, soulful art, those guys have finally gotten their due.

It’s a testament to the demand that still exists for real music, y’know. Like, these are artists in a universal sense, practicing their craft—using real instruments and building out cohesive projects that have a clear, artistic message by and for the common man.”We chose ‘So American’ because it really fits with who we are as a band, and we feel like it translates well in our sort of folky Americana style…

The message in ‘So American’ cuts right to the core of the culture we grew up in—seeing everything—politics, religion, whatever—through this American lens, and all of John’s songs pushed us to view the world differently and find a new level of empathy and even affected our spiritual awareness in those formative adolescent years. That’s not something you get from just any song by just any band. It’s really a special thing. I guess, in a way, our performing this song is our way of saying thank you to John, Zach and the rest of the guys for enriching our lives with their art.”-Kelly Wayne Conley

May 2, 2019 0

Kuri Hypnotizes on Unflinching “Human Nature” Visuals

British Columbia singer-songwriter Kuri recently released a video for his single “Human Nature”, a cut from an EP with the same title. Before I break down the visuals a little bit, this is my first exposure to Kuri’s work and plenty needs to be said for this song as well.

“Human Nature” is a gorgeously delicate, intricately woven patchwork quilt of airy folk that begins in a rustling whisper of leafy harmonies and culminates in sunshine-washed waves of strings and percussion. My first thoughts immediately fly to Damien Rice’s 2014, often-cinematic My Favourite Faded Fantasy for the song having that same pastoral ambition (as well as a knack for words of gut-dropping melancholy slipped within the breaths of the melody).

That lyrical introspection is given life in vivid illustration via the video for “Human Nature”, which captures the thin-railed frailty the title hints toward. We seem to be witness to an almost typical whirlwind of a romance in this story, but not is all as the perfectly arranged scene seems. A tender embrace includes a lost, rigid look into the distance. Moments of connection are sought with a passion, but fall apart like dreams become smoke become the unrelenting reality of one person who just can’t let release the unattainable.

But, as Kuri’s words fall out so appropriately, “it’s human nature to need some impeccable force”. Sometimes we’re that Jim Carrey character from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind simply refusing to forget a mountainous presence no matter how much we try to erase it. Or how it might lead to our own self-destruction. And much like the film, the visual’s end remains open… uncertain.. flawed…. yet still willing to fight even if only to end in doom.

And what could be more human than that?

April 30, 2019 0

Wyld hits the right notes on sweet summertime glow of “Child”

I’ve been freelancing as a music writer for a few years now, and I still consider one of my greatest gold medal achievements to be the connections I’ve made to New York City’s area music scene. I’m sure I’m said this in one form or another before in my writings, but here it is again. Some of the biggest city crossovers of mine have coincided within very significant parts of my life that really defined the person I’ve become and the art I’ve created since. There’s a beautifully-lit, urban imagery to it all I deeply appreciate whenever I get the chance to look back on it all. Plenty of nostalgic tones, sunrises, and late-night hero orders in that paint box.

I found that same fond imagery coming to mind watching the music video for my latest connection on that New York City map, Brooklyn-area singer-songwriter Elizabeth Wyld. Look no further than the opening shot of the iconic city skyline in “Child”, or the lyrics’ initial mentions of Christopher Street and signature yellow cabs. Though looking beyond that, I’d say the greatest ode to this city in both song and video lies in it’s romantic heart.

“Child” is a sweetly shiny, folk-pop foot tapper that relays one of the oldest and most relatable feelings in humanity: navigating/risking the vulnerabilities of falling in love. It can happen as fast as a shock to the system and hit twice as hard, especially in that first moment’s “spark” that feels like your insides are doing caffeinated backflips. I equate the feeling to… jumping into an ice cold pool instead of dipping a toe in on a hot summer day. But as anxiety-provoking as the thought of such a crash is, when that feeling’s right… you just sense it in your bones and welcome it with a smile. And I felt this whole course of thought spill out just giving this song a few listens… again, good memories brought to mind by the presence of good art.

Plus, the music video for this song fills in the illustrations of the lyrics beautifully. It does so in a way that reminds me of the useful narrative power music videos still have in even in a post-MTV and TRL era. I think that’s mostly due to the performances of Wyld and Dana DePirri, who exude the type of natural, bright-eyed chemistry that makes the “thrift store cardigan” romance of this song authentically movie-sweet. Not in the plastic, Hollywood way that feels more substance than stereotype. Rather, in the type of way that goes to show the sort of stylized gloss I think we all put on that initial relationship ember that makes our brain chemistry’s electricity crackle. It’s an endorphin rush, and this video really puts it in the moment.

To do that so naturally, puts a smile on my face every time. Go drive with the windows down, the sunshine on, and take in this song’s ambiance.

You can check out Elizabeth’s music at her website http://elizabethwyld.com/

August 3, 2018 0

Video Exclusive: unwrapping Kohli Calhoun’s “Zebedee”

Over the last several years that I’ve spent writing about music, I can easily say that I’ve had good fortune come my way with the artists that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and work alongside.

But this collaboration is something entirely new. What I have for you today has never before seen on OTBEOTB. In fact, it hasn’t been seen at all because this post is introducing the exclusive music video premiere for Brooklyn-area artist Kohli Calhoun and her song “Zebedee”.

If you’ve read some of my prior content here you’ll certainly already know who Calhoun is, but if you don’t here’s a quick synopsis. As I said before, Calhoun is based out of Brooklyn, and after an tumultuous beginning to her musical career she “rose from the ashes” so to speak in order to create her first full length LP Take Me Away. The record came out earlier this year, and has already received favorable press from the likes of the Huffington Post as well as Calhoun’s recent selection as a Featured Artist on the website Noisetrade.

But that’s not why ya called. Today I want to discuss the aforementioned “Zebedee”, a melodic haunt of a track from Calhoun’s Take Me Away that seems like an apt choice for the music video treatment. And that expectation is well-placed as the video explores the song’s themes of love, loss, betrayal, and sadness through the eyes of a beautifully illustrated world of animation that gracefully illuminates the differences. I could easily speculate about the meaning behind many of the small details of note in this video, but that I leave to you as a fellow member of the audience to interpret for yourselves.

Suffice it to say, the visuals on this video are a stunningly creative complement between Calhoun and her collaborators to one of the strongest tracks on Take Me Away. Its work like this that makes the world of music videos a relevant place again, and we’re truly the better with the level of depth this visual context can provide.

So on that note, let me step aside and have you enjoy the music video for “Zebedee”, brought to you exclusively by On The Back Edge of the Beat.

December 8, 2017 0

Babcock Brings “5A” To Our Floor For New Video Debut

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of collaborating with smooth-folk troubadour Stephen Babcock in order to discuss his current LP Said & Done. Babcock was a new face to me at the time, and I found myself immediately charmed by his music.

For one thing, it’s often easily straightforward without being stereotypically indie or coffeehouse. No offense to the Bon Iver’s or St Vincent’s of the world, but it’s often pleasant to just go back to the bare essentials of music’s bedrock beginnings. The era when folk music felt like an innocence rapidly turning cloudy, or… ya know, when a man named Dylan came along and changed the game forever.

Babcock has that same stripped down charm to his sound, as well as a sense for songwriting that combines to make for a hard punch in a velvet glove. It was a prominent force on Said & Done, and also makes a fresh appearance for Babcock’s latest song “5A”.

Shot in Central Park for A Remote Session, “5A” finds Babcock directly in his element. With just a guitar slung across his shoulder and a song on his sleeve, he strolls casually singing about a relationship gone on a downward bender.

He opines, “She was an hourglass, she could spare no time” with a gentle reserve some might spare for conversation eased into the picture frame of a moment. In a sense the cinematography of the video fits that conversational tone as well, painting Babcock as the everyman’s example of making the difficult look easy.

It’s a reminder of a simple adage that seems relatively forgotten nowadays: less is more. A reminder that yeah maybe you can’t get a bank of synthesizers or a quartet of strings, but you can still take out a guitar and make it sing.

Check out the video for “5A” up above, and be sure to go find Stephen on social media if you like/want to hear more of what you see! And be sure not to miss the line in this song “is it bad that I miss her mother more than I miss her?”.

It might not jump out at first, but it’s a deceptive killer.

December 23, 2016 0