Now Hear This: #002 – Julez and the Rollerz, Kensie Coppin, Roselit Bone & KARAVAN

Each new day brings hundreds of emails from labels, solo artists, bands, and publicists. Time constraints regulate how many receive a listen. And even then, if some quality about the music – the beat, the melody, the vocals—doesn’t immediately catch our attention in the first fifteen seconds, we click delete and move on to the next.

Much of the music is either derivative, meaning it sounds like everything else, or mediocre, implying it leaves us feeling stuck in neutral, or, thankfully, in very few cases, really bad, indicating that the Peter Principle is in effect.

We listen to pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, country, jazz, EDM, World music, blues, metal, alt-rock, soul, indie-rock, reggae, folk, Latin, punk, easy listening, K-pop, funk, ska, electro, industrial, prog-rock, grunge, dream-pop, shoegaze, new wave, drum and bass, and trap music. Did you know there are at least 37 styles of metal music?

In the midst of all this music, gems appear. It’s very subjective, of course, yet withal, we offer a few for your evaluation. With that in mind, we offer the following under-the-radar and largely unnoticed new music released in the last six months as meritorious. We’ll bring you a new post each week, songs from which will regularly be added to our accompanying “Now Hear This” Spotify playlist.

Julez and the Rollerz – Is This Where The Party Is?

SoCal all-femme garage rock outfit Julez and the Rollerz dropped their debut EP, Is This Where The Party Is?, last month.

Made up of Jules Batterman (lead vocals, guitar), Rachel David (bass vocals), Shea Carothers (synth, vocals), Hannah Hughes (guitar, vocals), and Emi Borja (drums), Julez and the Rollerz sound is both raw and edgy, full of grungy guitars topped by nuanced vocals and tight harmonies.

Best of all, the EP steers clear of cloying over-production and digital manipulation, thus maintaining an uncooked feel. Entry points include grimy opener “Sorry I’m Just A Waste Of Time” and “Confess.”

Kensie Coppin – “Unlovable”

Traditional country singer Kensie Coppin’s new single, “Unlovable,” opens on a sad piano, followed by the entry of poignant strings.

Coppin describes herself: “I’m a tree huggin, weed lovin, hippie country girl.” Yet what sets her apart from the run-of-the-mill country crooner is her unapologetically twangy voice with a luscious, tight nasal quality that makes no pretense of stoic resignation. Rather it discloses a granular essence going to an extreme and beyond and becomes tenderly haunting.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5DZrjdu8JmV0w3JOyfJMnU?si=7ee149fb204e4382

Roselit Bone – “Your Gun”

Portland-based gothic country rock 8-piece outfit Roselit Bone will drop their fourth long player, Ofrenda, on August 25. “Your Gun,” a track from the upcoming album, was released on June 15.

Fronted by Charlotte McCaslin, Roselit Bone blends elements of rockabilly, Mexican ranchera music, and country into swanky, swaggering sonic concoctions perfectly suited for a Quentin Tarantino movie—dark, sleazy, and sensuous, verging on pornographic.

Talking about the album, McCaslin says, “‘Ofrenda’ feels more real to me. The band is tighter, my voice is my own, the arrangements are prettier. Where the lyrics are especially bleak, I tried to create a soft place in the music for the heart to rest.”

“Your Gun” starts off on low-slung guitars pushing out muted power chords, followed by rumbling drums, stomps, claps, and a slimy piano. Drenched in voluptuous naughty inflections, McCaslin’s vocals imbue the lyrics with luscious chirps and yowls.

“I can’t stop crying long enough to fuck / And there’s a bullet missing from your gun.”

KARAVAN – Unholy Mountain

Unholy Mountain, the new album from Norwegian sludge/doom metal band KARAVAN, conveys gloomy dread via drop F-tuned guitars oozing serrated, muddied textures.

Other than their Bandcamp page, little is known about KARAVALN. According to Bandcamp, “KARAVAN was born in 2019 on the Southwest coast of Norway. United by a passion for rumbling fuzz and the mysteries of the universe, creating a dark and cosmic sound inspired by all corners of the Doom Metal genre.”

Of the seven tracks on Unholy Mountain, must-listens include “Chase The Dragon,” its groaning, suppurating intro flows into a grumbling, crushing melody highlighted by deep, rasping vocals.

A thick, trembling bass initiates “Bonfire Ritual,” building to coagulated guitars atop crunching percussion. Taut and foreboding, tones of sepulchral gravity spew shadows blacker than black, followed by a blues-tinted solo riding waves of malicious resonance.

KARAVAN carries listeners into the Skiaffarilla, where shadows are blacker than black.