Bedouin Soundclash, courtesy Steph Montani.

This week is all about physical, metaphorical and head trips. Bedouin Soundclash enters the eye of a storm, The Mother Hips trek southward, Bad Sounds split the difference between Liverpool and Manchester, Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects goes to space (and to the early aughts) with Now More Than Ever and GALE and the Hails travel into the minds of other people.

Bedouin Soundclash, “We Will Meet In A Hurricane”  – Toronto duo Bedouin Soundclash describes its music as post-punk and world-beat, but the title track to its new album (out now) has the heart of a Bruce Springsteen classic with that percussive reverb, echo-laden delay and direct narrative storytelling. The hurricane is a metaphor that can be interpreted any number of ways and will mean different things to people, which is another draw here.

“Everything is sinking to the bottom down below/ Everything I owned and everything I used to know,” longtime musical partners Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair declare. To me, they’re saying they’re ready for a change, as tumultuous as it may be.

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The Mother Hips, “When We Disappear” – San Francisco folk and psych rock stalwarts The Mother Hips released the title track to their new album, coming in January, and it pulls a page straight out of the Heartbreakers’ playbook. The mid-tempo jam bounces along over a keyboard-based foundation with riffing and noodling from two or three guitars. The song sounds both Southern and Southern Californian (think deserts). Greg Loiacono wrote the demo and Tim Bluhm added lyrics about their adventures together. The band recorded this song and all the others from When We Disappear in Sante Fe, New Mexico in late 2021 after spending some time at Ghost Ranch. The matching vocal delivery seems to pay homage to the partnership of Tom Petty and Mike Campbell.

The Mother Hips kicked off a new tour last weekend and will play several Bay Area shows through December, including Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol this Friday, The Guild Theatre in Melo Park on Saturday and three shows at Great American Music Hall Dec. 16 to 18.

Now More Than Ever, “Don’t Rush, Don’t Wait” – Do you love All-American Rejects but wish Tyson Ritter and company added an aria quality to their sound? Ritter thinks you do! That’s what the new single from his new band, No More Than Ever is about. The trio includes AAR touring keyboardist Scott Chesak (who’s also played with Panic! At the Disco and Weezer) and Izzy Fontaine (Isaac Bolivar, who’s played with Taking Back Sunday and Glassjaw) and will release its debut album, Creatrix, next March. Ritter’s stylistic influences aren’t too much different from his more famous band, so this is a fun song—about crushing on that 10 with the cool of Joan Jett—that’ll send you back to the early aughts with its synth-laden anthemic verses and chorus.

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GALE, “D Pic” – Why yes, this song is about photographs of members—of the unwanted variety. But really, it’s about consent and respect. Carolina Isabel Colón Juarbe, who’s Puerto Rican, has co-written songs for the likes of Christina Aguilera (that work was nominated for a Latin Grammy), Anitta, Shakira, Cardi B, Juanes, Pharrell Williams and many more. But here GALE (pronounced GAH-leh) is stepping out on her own on this mid-tempo song punctuated by handclaps, a xylophone (to simulate phone notifications!) and crunchy guitar. We at RIFF love supporting artists from Puerto Rico, but it’s very possible GALE will outgrow Tuesday Tracks quickly.

The Hails, “Exonerate” – This is exactly the kind of song to get my attention. Led by Hammond-like organ or synth, there’s just enough of a funky bed on which the song rests, with syncopated guitar strumming and punchy bass. The singing by quintet The Hails is well done, but the narrative also stands out. How many “I told you so” songs do you hear these days? In this song, the band sings about a friendship under pressure because the intended listener’s love life isn’t working out like she’d hoped. “I don’t want to tell you I don’t like it/ I don’t want to stop you now from trying/ But you never seem to get it right,” they sing. The Hails told you so.

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Bad Sounds, “Nu Me Nu Yu” – Callum and Ewan Merrett offer up this funky Madchester-style tune that’s equal parts party jam and meditative trip—with harmonica riffing, a psychedelic synth freakout and hypnotic bass playing. Surprisingly, this song was originally planned for a side project before Bad Sounds decided it sounded too much like them.

“Me and you/ We’re gonna be brand new/ And we’re going to shine through!” the brothers sing.

Talking about the song, the duo added: “We’re absolutely delighted be the latest in a long list of bands ripping off the Beatles and repackaging it as our own.” That sort of tongue-in-cheek explanation fits right along with the vibe and theme of the song. This is the first new output from the band since EP Escaping from A Violent Time Vol 2, released last January.

Roman’s Pick: The first thing I noticed while listening to “We Will Meet In A Hurricane” wasn’t the music but that I was picturing myself on the ground with Bedouin Soundclash. The duo’s descriptions of a storm in-progress is an added color to a song that that already pops right off the page.

“We swam into the sky through a hurricane eye,” they sing, evoking the art of Georges Méliès, just like the Smashing Pumpkins did with the video for “Tonight, Tonight.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.