Bob Moses :: Cannons :: Oxis
July 17, 2026
Berkeley Greek Theater, Berkeley CA
Shot by Fiestaban Photography
Written by Fiestaban Photography & Cannons
They may call it “dream-pop”, but it was anything but a dream at the Berkeley Greek Theater last Friday. Though tempered by the Berkeley’s equivalent of ‘June Gloom’ (‘July Awry'? ‘July Gray Sky’?), Bob Moses, Cannons and Oxis brought their own brand of summer heat in spades. Oxis (the ‘nom de poisson’ of Valentina Cy—the name a deliberate misspelling of Auxis, the genus of fish that includes tuna, which was coined by a teacher who mispronounced “Valentina”) has absolutely the sweetest voice. The L.A.-based electrostar and purveyor of “Fish Electronica”, has a whopping 8 albums, with all tracks named after various forms of marine life. It needs to be said however, though dreamscape-y and deeply melodic, you might not catch all the fish references at first, though the hooks are real. Giving the audience a chance to explore her lush soundscape on an ostensibly simple setup of mixer and signature teal Stratocaster, Oxis will definitely make you want to do a deep dive after the show.
Michelle Joy was once a track star. As a kid in Florida, the Cannons singer ran cross-country and smoked the 800-meter, the half-mile sprint that invariably leaves every participant gassed at the finish. Joy’s father was a professional track coach, a taskmaster who taught her to accept the pain, to know that being uncomfortable was simply the toll of being excellent. Late in 2024, as Cannons neared a full year of touring behind their fourth album, 2023’s Heartbeat Highway, Joy ignored the signs that her body was breaking—the fatigue, a brain fog so severe that putting on makeup became exhausting—and kept forcing herself onto the stage. This, she reckoned, was simply the cost of being in Cannons, the dreamy pop trio that had accrued more than a billion streams in a decade and was now powering through its biggest-ever headlining and support tours and festival slots. It didn’t help, of course, that she was also enduring a divorce. But when Cannons finally came back to California, Joy’s doctor diagnosed her with anemia so severe her brain was being deprived of oxygen. She needed medicine, then surgery. She needed, in short, a break.
But Everything Glows, Cannons’ powerful and entrancing fifth album, is not the sound of a band returning from a rest. It is, instead, the work of three friends so close they have now become family realizing that this is their chance to reinvent not only the way they work, write, and record but also, in effect, the way they sound. If “Light as a Feather” opens in slow-motion, with keyboards sighing behind twinkling stereoscopic guitars, it soon explodes into a confident dance anthem, the rhythm pushing Joy to ecstatic heights. “You used to hold me/said that this would last forever,” Joy sings, her downcast voice suddenly arcing skyward. “But now I dance alone/And I feel lighter than ever.” Everything Glows is Cannons, cutting itself free.
In spite of the drain that Joy, Ryan Clapham, and Paul Davis felt, they never stopped working on what else Cannons might still make or become. Before Cannons even started contemplating Everything Glows, they wrote “Fool for You,” a heartsick and bewitching song about the shame of needing someone around to make you whole. Drifting somewhere between Beach House and Cocteau Twins, the song established an atmosphere they liked and wanted to pursue—moody but light, like the autumn sun slicing through stained glass.
As Joy recovered from her anemia while preparing for an operation in early 2025, Clapham and Davis kept composing new material. The pair live 15 minutes apart, so Clapham would often drive to Davis’ home and work until they had hatched an idea. At one point, they stumbled upon a springy beat and a rubbery lick they dubbed “Good Luck Charm,” then decided to try their hand at writing lyrics they could imagine Joy singing. When Joy heard the words, she didn’t feel obsolete or insulted; finally emerging from a period of intense difficulty, she felt seen and understood by two friends who had become her chosen family, by the two musicians with whom she’d repeatedly traveled the world. It jump-started an intense period of writing and recording, Cannons bypassing its usual method of passing demos back and forth in favor of all three members sitting together in a studio, dreaming up tunes as one unit. More than a quarter of Everything Glows emerged from that approach.
Everything Glows radiates that sense of camaraderie and fellow feeling, of bearing witness to one another through travails and triumphs. Even as they explore new avenues, these songs suggest a kind of memory map of Cannons’ last several years. The disco daydream of “I Get Weak” looks back at the wreckage of an abandoned relationship that, in lonely hours of the night, looks pretty good from a distance. “Sometimes I miss the lies you told me,” Joy sings over luxurious synths and strings. “Makes me think that I might like the pain.” And on “These Nights,” where Cannons take a Khruangbin-like groove to fresh pop glory, Joy remembers the struggles of the stage, how stepping beneath the spotlight could make her feel like she was being swallowed whole by her career. But this isn’t some overly specific “turn the page” lament; if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your own existence, this one’s for you, too.
What’s most essential about Everything Glows, both in the way it was made and the way it moves, is how it points ahead. Joy begins to break free of her past during “Shine,” a sprawling and beautiful song where Clapham’s guitars and Davis’ keys shape a kind of primordial ooze from which she slowly emerges. “Tonight we shine in the neon lights…” Joy softly celebrates in the chorus, sounding like she’s stopped by The Roadhouse for a duet with Julee Cruise. And Everything Glows ends with a jangling bit of liberation on “Take Me to Tokyo,” where Joy dreams of getting lost somewhere exotic, of being swept into clouds of freedom and fantasy by and with someone new. “Falling too fast, but I feel alive,” she sings quickly, an aside that doubles as proof of life.
Everything Glows is Cannons’ fifth album, arriving after a decade of success—several world tours, multiple songs at the top of alternative radio, sold-out shows at places like the Greek, marquee slots at major festivals. Bands at this point in their careers often stagnate, low on new ideas and enthusiasm for the process or for each other but Cannons found they actually had the opposite problem: They had written and recorded 16 songs they loved, although they hoped to keep Everything Glows to a tight 10. Turns out, they’d never had so much fun working on an album. They compromised. Together, these 11 songs navigate heartbreak and codependence, brokenness and, ultimately, liberation, framing a group that found new ways to move forward and absolute excitement in those prospects.
Bob Moses (the Canadian-born duo consisting of Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance)—named after thatRobert Moses of New York urban planning fame (or infamy)—truly got the party started, here and everywhere. A 120-bpm masterclass in electro and contemporary house music, plus a soothing Chris Martin-esque voice, the entire Greek Theater was ready to bounce to the beat. Opening with the club-ready “Time Of Your Life” and the sweaty-lipped “Waiting On The World”, Bob Moses dazzled and pulsed with anthemic bangers like “Leave Like This” and “Last Forever”, plus an ultra-concupiscent cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”. Breaking out in 2015 with their first album All In All, the decade since has now left the duo bi-coastal (NY and LA), but you wouldn’t know it from the absolute steel-trap tightness of the lineup, especially touring members Julio Tavarez on guitar/bass, and Joe Zizzo on drums. If you’ve ever needed a go-to feel-good band for all those long midnight drives, Bob Moses needs to be in heavy rotation, especially their 2025 release, BLINK .
