Orange County, CA – July 20, 2019 – When you think of Blues Music in Orange County, you cannot forget about Papa J as he is one of the passionate souls behind it. Awarded as the “Entertainer of the Year” in 2010 in the Los Angeles Music Awards and also as the Blues Artist of the Year in 2012. Over the last few years serious medical problems have slowed Papa J down but after almost dying twice, he has come back to still play with the energy and style that he is known for. He’s almost 70 years of age and still hits the stage every night with the energy of a guy half his age.

Santa barbara — Friday, July 19th, 2019 — Looking forward to looking backward? Join The Mates on their defiantly nostalgic journey into Future Junk, the imaginary soundtrack to a Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedy set in a Britpop version of The Jetson’s.

Melancholy harmonic fields shimmer behind the perfect pop craftsmanship of the slaphappy opener, Which Way to the Future, as well as in outright downers like The Buzz Is Over, and Despair. The dialectic comes full circle with the eminently danceable This Sucks. The spirit (and seemingly the voice) of John Lennon at his most sarcastic presides over Joke, but it’s the wistful sweetness of these tunes that linger in the ear.

Electrified guitar strings guide an unraveling melody at the start of “Forget Us,” the new single from alternative rockers Microcosms, but it isn’t until they run head-on into a wall of leering lyricism and a muscular percussive track that we start to hear the depth of their tonality. Their fiery riffing will serve as the centerpiece of this latest release from the Chicago-based band, and while the tempo of this song is as unpredictable as the crude but captivating vocal harmonies are, there’s scarcely a moment where “Forget Us” fails to keep us engaged in its melodic strain of sonic brutality. This is a huge step forward from the 2018 EP Fairytale, and in my opinion, the most attractive single that this group has shared to date.

As searing as they are full of a rich elegance that is hard to come by in modern pop music, the synth parts in Charley Young’s new single “Hold the Moon” are some of the most attractive of any I’ve listened to this summer (which is saying a lot when considering just how much exciting synthpop has been released this season). Young’s synthesizers are steeped in an organic opulence and wholly lack the tininess that plagues similarly-stylized, but generally amateurish, material that her less than intriguing peers have issued in the past. “Hold the Moon” is sporting a lot of substance on all fronts, making it a remarkably attractive listen to put it mildly.

Alternative pop fans who are in the mood for a smart groove need to make a point of hearing the new single and music video from Happy, Hollow, “Flowers,” before this summer is over. In “Flowers,” pop harmonies are melded with a righteous rock n’ roll rhythm that is capable of getting even the most discriminating of critics shaking to its mild beat, and while the video for the song is rather simple by design, its utter lack of artificial frills makes it a unique find this July to say the least. Happy, Hollow raise the bar for themselves and their scene in this track, and provide us ample reason to believe in their exciting brand of pop/rock.

It’s not clear whether it’s finger-snapping or some techier percussive element in the first few bars of Fenix & SM1LO’s “Where We Begin,” which shares its name with the record of remixes and radio edits that the two collaborating partners released last month, but in either case, it sparks chills the moment the song starts to play. This instrumental portion of the track is perhaps the most evocative, as it sets us up for the theatrical lead vocal of Llexa, a singer I just discovered when reviewing this LP. There’s a sense that something big is coming at this juncture, and in roughly twenty-two seconds’ time, we find out exactly what it is.