JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates A Place to Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann's 49th birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Tina Weymouth's 75th birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontperson Karen O's 47th birthday.

JOVM mainstay Craig Ferguson is an electronic music producer and artist best known in dance music circles as TONNUP. Over the course of the past calendar year, Ferguson has released a handful of club bangers including "I'm So Into You," "Spymaster" and "Dream of You." Ferguson's latest single "Friction" is a flirty club banger anchored around a throbbing bass line, skittering beats, glistening synths and a sultry vocal sample singing lyrics full of mischievous and naughty double entendres. Expressing the unadulterated lust, curiosity and anticipation of that moment when you make a one-on-one connection with someone on the dance floor that seems to deepen, "Friction" sonically is one-part Chicago house, one-part Giorgio Moroder disco, one-part Kylie Minogue -- or in other words, all sweaty, grinding, primal desire.

ARTO is a mysterious, emerging and rather prolific French electronic music producer. His latest single "Drive Me Hazy" is a lush, hook-driven and dreamy synthesis of deep house, Afrobeats and melodic house that's club and lounge friendly -- and most importantly, crowd pleasing.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of Gary "Mani" Mounfield.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Björk's 60th birthday.

Started back in 2008 as both a side project and creative experiment for the members of Los Angeles-based punk rock The Bronx, Mariachi El Bronx — Matt Caughthran (vocals), Joby J. Ford (guitar, vihuela, accordion), Jared Shavelson (drums), Keith Douglas (trumpet), Ray Suen (violin), Brad Magers (trumpet), Ken Horne (jarana), and Vincent Hidalgo (guitarrón)– has long been deeply rooted in their deep connection to the Hispanic music and culture of their hometown. Although seemingly different, the and doesn’t see punk and mariachi as mutually exclusive. Instead, they view both genres as spiritually entwined forces anchored in resilient storytelling. “Punk rock and mariachi music are very similar in soul,” The Bronx’s and Mariachi El Bronx’s Matt Caughthran says. “It’s working class music. It’s real music.”  Despite almost two decades of success, that has included sharing stages with Foo Fighters and The Killers; sets across the global festival circuit, including Coachella and Glastonbury; performances on Late Show with David Letterman to NPR’s Tiny Desk; and theme songs for shows like Weeds and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the members of Mariachi El Bronx still consider themselves lifelong students of the art form. That reverence carries over to their charro suits, which often attract as much attention as the music itself. The band has long turned to Boyle Heights-based Casa del Mariachi, a historic Los Angeles area landmark, where Jorge “Mr. George” Tello has been handcrafting the traditional suits for over 50 years. “This band has always been about learning and exchanging culture through music and art,” says Caughthran. “That’s what it’s all about! Everything we do comes from the heart and soul.” Mariachi El Bronx’s long-awaited fourth album, the John Avila-produced Mariachi El Bronx IV is slated for a February 13, 2026 release through ATO Records. The album, which is the first album from the project in a decade, sees the trailblazing alter-egos of The Bronx continuing to embody the same ethos that sparked their creation — honoring the rich Hispanic music and culture that has always surrounded them in their hometown, while pushing creative boundaries.  Clashing emotions of profound loss and overwhelming love shaped the album’s themes. The songwriting “started as a battle between love and death but became a way to process all the chaos of the world,” Caughthtran explains. Throughout the run of the album’s 12-tracks, the band documents the stories of gamblers, former playboys, warriors and lovers — characters that became vessels for the specific pressures of modern life.  Returning after a decade away felt “joyous and familiar from the jump,” the band’s Joby J. Ford says. But the album’s recording process proved to be much more complex than expected. Within the year that he began writing the album’s lyrics, Caughthran contended with the deaths of several loved ones. And as they tracked the album’s material at producer John Avila’s San Gabriel Valley studio, the Eaton Canyon wildfires blazed across East L.A. “We came out of the studio one night, the entire side of the hill was just on fire,” Ford recalls.  While dealing with grief in his personal life and within Los Angeles, Caughthran also got married in the same year. All of these very profoundly human experiences and feelings have informed what may arguably be Mariachi El Bronx’s most emotionally resonate work to date.  Mariachi El Bronx IV’s first single, album opener “Forgive or Forget” features violinist Ray Suen on a swooning and galloping track that captures the nostalgia, bitter heartache, the longing to forget that heartache, and the desire to move forward with a seemingly booze-tinged haze. Fittingly, the song is rooted in a complicated and uneasy mix of despair and hope that feels lived-in and familiar.  The accompanying video for "Forgive or Forget" features the members of Mariachi El Bronx in the traditional mariachi charro suits performing the song in silhouette in front of colorful backgrounds. It reminds me quite a bit of the ad campaigns for Apple iPods back in the day.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 55th anniversary of the birth of Phife Dawg.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Beastie Boys co-founder Mike D,'s 60th birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth of Dr. John.

Rising British indie rock outfit thistle. -- Cameron Godfrey (vocals, guitar), Carey Judwynn Rushton (bass, backing vocals) and Lewis O'Grady (drums) released there debut EP, it's nice to see you, stranger earlier back in July. The EP, which explores themes of isolation, the trials and tribulations of adulthood and ennui was released to praise on both sides of the Atlantic, including Stereogum, Dork Magazine, Clash Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Rolling Stone UK and So Young -- and received airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X personalties Steve Lamacq, Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd. The band has played stages across the UK and Europe alongside Westside Cowboy, Upchuck, Witch Post, Cryogeyser and Man/Woman/Chainsaw and are currently opening for Humour on their UK headlining tour. The British trio will be announcing 2026 tour dates and festival appearances shortly. But in the meantime, building upon a growing profile, thistle. recently signed to REX RECS, who released their latest single, "tied," which sees them collaborating with REX RECS founder, producer, songwriter and musician Macks Faulkron. Clocking in at a little over 90 seconds, "tied" is able to blistering and breakneck grungy ripper that simultaneously channels 120 Minutes MTV-era grunge/alt-rock and emo, as well as contemporaries like Glimmer and others. The song evokes the uneasy push-and-pull of balancing the grind of 9-5 life, and creative ambitions -- especially when they seem wildly incompatible. “'tied' is a tribute to the emotional hardcore bands that we grew up on. The lyrics explore the relentless grind of 9-5 work," the band explains. "It flips between optimism and a feeling of defeat... something we're always looking for in our music."

Since the release of 2022’s Endless, the Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays  Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — have released a growing collection of standalone singles.  Earlier this year, the duo shared “DREAMCRUSHER” “Stay Out Of The Basement,” and "Baker's Lung," the first three of a series of singles that originally started out a bare-bonded ukulele sketches, which gradually transformed into idiosyncratic electronic sound sculptures. The Canadian duo's latest single "Mid Century Nothing" is a spacey and subtly uneasy fusion of shoegaze, electronic rock and electro pop that's arguably the most band-orientated release from the duo in some time, while also capturing the tension between introspection and assertion. And as a result, the song possesses a quiet, unguarded defiance. “It came from our ukulele songs and slowly turned into one of our weirdo electronic tracks,” the duo shares. “We were about 85 percent of the way through arranging it when we decided to perform it at a winter festival. We don’t play live very often – we’ve only done it twice in the last 10 years. Something about rehearsing and being on stage changes the way we approach the music. This song became more defiant, touched on what’s happening in the world, and ended up way more assertive and confrontational than anything we made in the studio.” “It reminded us that we actually come from jamming things out in a rehearsal space,” they add. “Maybe we should spend more time in that mode. Either way, we could probably play live more than twice a decade.”

Augu is a mysterious and emerging Lithuanian electronic music producer, who caught my attention with singles like “Foreigner,” “Line“ and "Silence." The Lithuanian artist's latest single, the aptly named "Industrial," is an industrial electronic banger that subtly channels Ministry and Blanck Mass, complete with the prerequisite thump, and clang and clatter -- but with a melodic sensibility.

Hong Kong-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Lucid Express will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album Instant Comfort on February 20, 2026 through Kanine Records. Mixed by Kurt Feldman during marathon overnight, transpacific sessions on Discord, Instant Comfort reportedly captures the unsettling stillness of the nighttime hours. The album's material sonically sees the Hong Kong-based outfit pairing ethereal melodies with towering walls of jangling guitars and hazy, swirling feedback while being more clear-eyed, complex and layered than anything they've released to date. Instant Comfort's first single "Something Blue" is anchored around a classic grunge and shoegaze song structure -- shimmering and dreamily meditative soundscape-driven verses and stormy walls of churning and fuzzy power chords for the song's enormous hooks and choruses. The song's woozy and uneasy nature, helps to further emphasize the band's Kim Ho's ethereal delivery exploring the sense of creeping dead and melancholy that comes from uncertain relationships/situationships. The accompanying video for "Something Blue" features the band in front of projections of footage submitted by fans and friends from across the globe. Now, as you may know, since the release of 2021's self-titled full-length debut, the band has amassed praise from fans and critics across the globe, toured internationally and made a run of the international festival circuit with stops at Slide Away and LEVITATION. They will return to North America next year for a sting of Stateside dates, including a return to play New Colossus Festival in March. More details on that to come.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Metallica guitarist Kirt Hammett's 63rd birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 97th anniversary of the birth of Sheila Jordan.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Ronnie Devoe's 58th birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 59th anniversary of Jeff Buckley's birth.

DJ Rukhlove is a mysterious and emerging Spanish electronic music artist and producer, who has been busily and prolifically releasing material over the course of the past year or so. Earlier this year, the Spanish producer released the LutchamaK and Kraftwerk-like "Zara To Astra."  His latest single "Echoes of the Cosmic Tuaregs," is a slickly produced, mind-bending mesh of progressive house featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths and driving groove with live instrumentation, including guitar, violin and duduk. The result is something that's accessible and club friendly yet evokes something timeless, like a desert caravan traveling under the stars -- to a rave.

San Francisco psych pop supergroup Magic Fig -- Inna Showalter (vocals, mellotron), Jon Chaney (keys), Muzzy Moskowtiz (guitar), Matthew Ferrara (bass) and Taylor Giffin (drums) -- features members of The Umbrellas, Healing Potpourri, Almond Joy, Whitney's Playland and Blades of Joy. The quintet's full-length debut, Valerian Tea is slated for a Friday release through Exploding In Sound Records. The album reportedly feels like a deep-dive down the rabbit hole into a bold, new world that feels much more vivid and flamboyant. Valerian Tea's material touches upon themes of memory, myth and melancholy while seeing the quintet quickly establishing a swirling mass of exploratory songwriting built around arrangements featuring piano, synths, glockenspiel, organ, 12-string acoustic and electric guitar. Already the album has earned praise from NPR's Into Music, Tour Stories with Joe Plummer Podcast, AudioFuzz, Post-Trash, Punknews.org, New Commute and others. Valerian Tea's final pre-release single "Goblin" is anchored around a gorgeous and ethereal, krautrock-meets-prog rock fever dream of an arrangement of twinkling piano and shimmering guitars that morphs into psilocybin-fueled Dark Side of the Moon-like psych rock territory for the song's second half or so. Magic Fig's Inna Showalter describes the new single as being "about the fickleness of inspiration." She continues, “It’s also a song about wearing disguises and not being authentic, which causes harm in the long run. The desire to be accepted and ‘good’ cannot always coexist with following your heart.” The accompanying video by Playland Studio's Elyse Shrock encapsulates the song's themes but with Monty Python and Yellow Submarine-styled animated visuals.