The velvet roads & glam goldmines of Dan Koshute

Portrait of a contemporary glam pop icon — Dan Koshute; photographed by Nick Fleury.

Sometimes a comet fires across the extents of the galaxies and touches down on the sovereign grounds of a dying earth. Rising from the moon-dusted crater of ash, gravel and soot stands a special kind of star —descended from the furthest reaches of the outer dimensions. A star to shine with the suns from a moonage daydream, a metal guru voyager to cast a light upon our planet’s desolation boulevards like a space ace from a time and place that is vaguely familiar and yet wielding a style of their own design and fantastical fusion. This starman who fell to earth is none other than the legendary Dan Koshute, a polymath of mythic and legendary proportions who recently gifted our beleaguered blue dot with the interstellar overdrive of Intravolve.

Intravolve enters into the zeitgeist of the wiles and weirdness of the world. Koshute brings in the big and bold brand of unfettered bravado with the carnival of cool that is "Cavalcade of Faces", to embracing the emanations of unrelenting light and limitless beauty in abundance beyond measure on "Glow Area". Amps are cranked to beyond the max with the raucous abandon of "Till Then", as "For Reasons" basks in the pop punk pageantry that rages beyond the breaking points of understanding and vacating the valence levels of radical reason.

"The Mysteries" exhibits Dan firing on all cylinders and leaning harder than ever before into a sound that the artist has been honing for years. "Coeternal" walks through the wondrous funhouse of perpetuity, while the "Leonids" fires brightly in the sky in a meteoric shower of shimmering chords and Koshute's trademark primal theatric pop delivery. Intravolve arrives to a stunning close with the title track that concludes what stands as one of the electric warrior's most dazzling and realized works to date that never lets up, maintains a pace that bops and blasts ahead at breakneck speed. Join us after the jump as Dan Koshute takes over Week in Pop with some exclusive selections of note:

Enter the pop parallax of Dan Koshute

Cardigan king — Dan Koshute; photographed by Nick Fleury.

Jai Paul, "All Night - Unfinished"

"All Night - Unfinished" from Jai Paul's album Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) was my most listened to song of 2022 according to Spotify. Jai is a next level, generational talent, and I'm so happy he's finally playing shows as of just this past year. Real heads only.

Lil Yachty, "pRETTY"

Lil Yachty's Let's Start Here. has been on constant rotation for me since it came out. I love the blend of new sonic textures with familiar ones and the heavy dose of cinematic sound design elements drifting in and out of the record. "pRETTY" is my favorite of the set.

November Ultra, "come into my arms"

I discovered French vocalist, November Ultra, via her intimate TikTok performance of the song "come into my arms”. As a singer I have an ear out for new voices that move me, and I was immediately smitten. When I played at Le Motel in Paris on tour last year and found out that it was one of her hometown venues she performs at often, I turned into a star struck fanboy.

Licorice Pizza

In most period pieces, the time in which they are based is little more than an afterthought, set dressing. Licorice Pizza is the first one that made me actually feel like I was immersed in the era on screen, in this case 1974. It's a romantic comedy that somehow subverts all clichés. The lead actors, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, absolutely crush it, and the supporting cast, made up of Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper and others are hilariously brilliant. On top of all that, the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard in recent memory.

Bad Nerves, "Can't Be Mine"

Bad Nerves scratches that itch for me to have a new, loud, fast, and infectious punk band in my life. The pop-literate hooks in the choruses and sticky melodies make you want to play their songs over and over as loud as you can. But for me the vocals are the centerpiece. Love them. "Can't Be Mine" kicks off their debut album like a starter pistol.

Dan Koshute’s album Intravolve is available now everywhere.