Animals in Denial Unleashes Raw Energy and Rebellion in “Because Reasons Revisited”

The music scene is often fraught with barriers, but artists like Animals in Denial break through these constraints with sheer determination and unwavering passion. In his latest release, “Because Reasons Revisited,” this industrial rock maestro doesn’t just drop a track; he unleashes a torrent of raw energy and rebellion that transcends boundaries and conventions.

First and foremost, it’s crucial to understand the genesis of “Because Reasons Revisited.” This track serves as the harbinger of a revisited series, a collection of songs that were initially birthed as rough demos. Yet, what truly sets these revisited versions apart is the meticulous craftsmanship that has gone into remixing and remastering, coupled with the utilization of state-of-the-art studio upgrades and AI tools. Animals in Denial, reflecting on the early days of his music-making journey, notes the humble beginnings of his studio setup, where post-production was often relegated to the sidelines due to limited resources. However, “Because Reasons Revisited” emerges as a testament to his evolution as an artist and his unyielding commitment to honing his craft.

But what truly ignites this track is its lyrical inspiration, a testament to the artist’s personal journey within the Industrial goth scene. Animals in Denial’s firsthand experience in this subculture was far from idyllic. Instead, he found himself bombarded by negative energy, pessimistic voices, and unsolicited advice from veteran artists who seemed disillusioned with the very essence of creation. The discouraging refrain that “nobody cares, so why bother” threatened to stifle his creative spirit.

However, “Because Reasons Revisited” boldly defies this sentiment. It encapsulates the essence of an artist who refuses to be silenced, a musical maverick who acknowledges that his path might not lead to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or a Grammy, but that’s inconsequential. What truly matters is that he created something that is honest, unapologetic, and deeply personal.

With influences that harken back to the glory days of rock, Animals in Denial stands as a torchbearer for the old-school Rock N Roll spirit. Nods to legendary acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, and Cheap Trick are evident in his music. Still, Animals in Denial masterfully blends these inspirations, creating a sound that is distinctly his own while remaining true to the roots of rock.

Yet, beyond the sonic prowess, Animals in Denial’s music embodies a universal language that defies cultural, linguistic, and societal barriers. “Because Reasons Revisited” stands as a clarion call for unity, understanding, and empathy. In a world often marred by division, his art becomes a bridge that connects diverse individuals, fostering a profound sense of shared humanity. He implores his audience not to fear judgment and to embrace their individuality.

Connect with Animals in Denial via:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Spotify / Soundcloud

Video Voyager: Low Tide Levee’s Video for “Dang Diggy”

Low Tide Levee is the newly emerging band of seasoned musicians featuring singer/songwriter, composer, drummer, pianist, and former marine biologist Amy Brookes as the primary creative force. She writes the songs, sings lead vocals and harmonies, and plays drums, percussion, and keyboard. Her husband, Sasha Ames, is the band’s bassist and, sometimes, studio guitarist, and the trio is rounded out by a guitarist.

The band just released their new single “Dang Diggy” and it’s accompanying video. The 60’s pop and progressive rock song was written during one of Amy’s jaunts to a local tea shop she used to frequent to get the creative juices flowing. She came up with this tune, not really expecting much from it, but it ended up being a band favorite.

The fun Claymation video depicts the character of Dang Diggy as an almost divine entity, throwing pies down onto the man below. This man is in a boat with nowhere to run from the pies, his only options are to jump out and swim or sit and take it. It’s a clear depiction of life through whatever it has down on you, good and bad.

We spoke to Amy about the video and what her ideas were:

Tell us the story of this song. Why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?

Dang Diggy came to me during one of my jaunts to my local tea shop that I used to frequent, a unique kind of place to gather and chat with random strangers, while enjoying the subtleties and meditation of gongfu tea ceremony. I often used my walks there and my time sipping tea to invite in the creative process, and many a gem came and was captured with my voice memo or note app on my phone.

The words just came into my head, and I thought it was a fun, silly, trippy song that could be a camp song. Little did I know that my band would love it and we would turn it into a rock anthem. Each pie is a ridiculous stoner dream of an over- the-top kind of dessert that exceeds all reason and just sounds like heaven, even if it would in reality be too much. Eventually, I realized that this incredible mask we found for our music studio (aka the “Funk Palace”) *was* Dang Diggy, and that Dang Diggy was absolutely this non-gendered deity that hung about in the sky throwing down pies to whomever might be fortunate enough to receive them.

What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

It was my dream to have a Claymation video showing the story of this character Dang Diggy, a deity-like being who hangs about in the sky throwing down all the different pies. I found someone on Fiverr (Aleksej Pezzi) who did really cool Claymation music videos, and we worked together on filling out the rest of the story and visuals. He proposed a number of different characters for the little creature receiving the pies, and I fell in love with one of them that was sort of Gumby-like with this big heart on its chest.  I liked the idea of the creature being in a boat since our band is very inspired by the ocean.  

What was the process of making this video? 

I wrote to Aleksej about the Dang Diggy mask (and sent photos) and the idea of a Claymation version of it throwing down pies, and we went through a process of sketches and proposals for each character’s look – starting with a sketch and progressing to a clay version.  He sent me a mock-up for each scene and we ironed out the details.  I wasn’t exactly keen on having Dang Diggy’s pie come out of its nose bathed in snot in one verse, but he kept it in and I just went with it (lol!!).  In the end, I wound up loving the whole little movie, it was beyond the sum of its parts and I was so delighted with the expression Aleksej created in each character as the story progresses.  No matter how many times I’ve viewed it now, it still cracks me up!  

Connect with Low Tide Levee via:

Website / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok / YouTube / Spotify / Soundcloud

Low Tide Levee Premiere Their Playful New Single “Dang Diggy”

Low Tide Levee is the rising band featuring seasoned musicians and lead by singer/songwriter, composer, drummer, pianist, and former marine biologist Amy Brookes. She writes the songs, sings lead vocals and harmonies, and plays drums, percussion, and keyboard. Her husband, Sasha Ames, is the band’s bassist and, sometimes, studio guitarist, and the trio is rounded out by a guitarist. Formerly, Low Tide Levee has included Chris Amato on guitar, engineering, and production, and Harold Spiva on guitar.

Their trippy and transformative music is fun and exciting with heavy, blues-based riff rock, stanky funk, and sneaky adventures into sprawling psychedelia. Lyrically, the songs can be mystical, playfully irreverent, and enlightening—sometimes in the same song. “A lot of the subjects we write about are things bubbling inside of me—themes of finding one’s power, and rising like a phoenix as an allegory. I’ve been through a lot of trauma in my life, and I am waking up to seeing the things that held me back,” Amy shares. 

Their new single, “Dang Diggy,” is a whimsical 1960s garage-rock single with an ABBA meets The Beatles sound that came to Amy during one of her creative sessions at a local tea she frequented. The lyrics came to her quite quickly, but she never expected the band to love it. The song boasts a sing-a-long refrain and oozes mystical overtones.

“Eventually, I realized that this incredible mask we found for our music studio (the “Funk Palace”) *was* Dang Diggy, and that Dang Diggy was absolutely this non-gendered deity that hung about in the sky throwing down pies to whomever might be fortunate enough to receive them,” says Amy. “These days in band practice, we use Dang Diggy both as a great warm-up, and as a sort of casting of the circle for our ritual of music creation, offering homage to Dang Diggy as it hangs out above my drum throne on the wall. After this musical ritual, I can’t help but laugh, every time.”

“Dang Diggy’s” hallucinatory charms come to life via its silly and fun claymation video. The video depicts the character of Dang Diggy throwing pies down on someone alone in a boat, almost like Dang Diggy symbolizes a God or life and the person down below in the boat represents you and your reality. This figure sits there letting life throw everything they’ve got, good and bad.

Connect with Low Tide Levee via:

Website / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok / YouTube / Spotify / Soundcloud

Low Tide Levee’s “Nautilus” is Hypnotic Psychedelic Rock at its Finest

The image of the sea at its lowest level—low tide—and the shore littered with an array of curiosities, presents a powerful metaphor for self-reflection. The idea of a “mental low tide” can be applied to those revelatory but fleeting moments after a hit of pot or a micro dose, or upon waking up from a vivid dream. They can even occur in a random jolt of inspiration where a buried desire comes into consciousness. 

“The name Low Tide Levee speaks to me on a lot of levels: I do love marine biology, I am a diver, and I am passionate about ocean conservation,” shares singer/songwriter, composer, and former Marine Biologist Amy Brookes. “The analogy of low tide symbolizing revealing things in our unconscious and subconscious is powerful for me. I am always drawn to looking at the strange and gross things after a low tide. Exploring those things metaphorically in our minds can be healing and powerful.” 

Low Tide Levee’s new psychedelic and classic rock single “Nautilus” symbolizes this idea of ocean tides meeting one’s mental tide. Inspired by a tiny Nautilus carving, a beautiful netsuke that Amy happened upon by luck while in a little shop one day. Originally a “riff song,” there are 3 distinct melodies in the song that all came together into song. Eventually, it came to Amy that she could feature the Nautilus character.

“Nautilus” flows a lot like the tide. The classic guitar riffs with the hypnotic beat and an island pop vocal style in Amy’s voice create an ebb and flow in the music. The energy is reminiscent of Pink Floyd meets Fleetwood Mac. It gives off a feels of sitting in the ocean and letting the tide take you away, drifting and floating with the water and current. Lyrically speaking, the listener is invited to journey down into the ocean, sinking beneath the waves with the surface sounds further and further away, and life slowing down.

“As the development of this song unfolded with lyrics emerging from my subconscious, it became about the wisdom of life, far beyond our human thinking ways, and the depth that exists if only we take the time to listen,” says Amy.

Listen here:

Connect with Low Tide Levee

Website / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok / YouTube / Spotify / Soundcloud

Puppets of Castro’s “Living the Dream” is Witty and Catchy

Puppets of Castro is the Los Angeles-based musical project of Andrew Lorand. An eclectic satirist and keen observer of the humor and pathos found around the darker edges of the human condition, Puppets of Castro takes his listeners on an often humorous, and often contemplative ride.

His song, “Living The Dream,” comes from his album, Nude Descending an Elevator. It’s got a great, catchy hook that immediately grabs your attention, and the song contains seven musical references from rock classics. See if you can find them all.

“My first band was the Kiwi’s, back in 5th grade, though technically in 3rd grade I was a member of the 007s, and we had only one song  (we would lip sync to ‘Wipeout’, which of course was an instrumental). Nobody looked at us and thought these guys are really going places,” quips Puppets of Castro. “This song is for all the bands and musicians who stuck with it long after dreams of riding in limos, appearing on The Midnight Special, and getting their Star on Hollywood Blvd. had faded.”

Connect with Puppets of Castro and stream his music via:

Bandcamp / Facebook / YouTube / Spotify / Website

Eric Selby Releases his Latest Folk Single “Horseshoes & Hand Grenades”

Eric Selby has released the first single “Horseshoes & Hand Grenades” from his upcoming full length release, Dang Fool, which is out via Soul Stew Records. 

“Horseshoes and Hand Grenades” is all about the notion that life is going to happen regardless; you can either accept it and go along with the ride, or observe it and do nothing. Getting really involved in your life and making things happen, Selby writes, is the better option. 

“This song is about the concept that life is going to happen so you can either be an observer or a participant. Action is more important than words, so since participating will ultimately make you happier, get off your duff and take charge of your life. ‘Sh*t happens’ and you can’t always rely on other people that you think are in your corner and when they do let you down, their remorse is fleeting, reflecting the immediate gratification that this social media world delivers in almost faster than real time. Love can be the same way. Protect yourself, advocate and communicate your thoughts and feelings because, ‘hearts get broken with precision of horseshoes and hand grenades.’”

With his style of alternative, contemporary Americana folk, Selby draws his influences from as wide a range as The Beatles, XTC and Phoebe Bridgers. Likewise, he has been compared with The Beatles, as well as Pink Floyd for his psychedelic vocal sound. 

Selby is from the Washington D.C. area, and is a single father to four daughters and a cat. After many years being the drummer of local bands, Selby has finally stepped out to release his first solo music in 2020 which included the EP “Do, Baby” and singles “Anxious Zen” and “Another Page.” 

Stay current with Eric Selby on his website, and social media channels Instagram  and Facebook 

Stream Selby´s music on YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud