|
 HEXADIODE
– Controlled Burn (hexadiode.bandcamp.com)
One year on from the release of their LP, “Metaxy,”
the Dayton, Ohio industrial innovators decided to try an experiment.
The tracks from that LP were provided to a diverse roster
of sonic scientists from all over the globe for their manipulation.
The results were assembled, all during the global pandemic,
and released as a celebration of the one-year milestone of
the record. Of that album I said it contained, “pounding
dance beats, gritty growling vocals, tons of synths and drum
machines, distortion aplenty, and an unyielding power…”
and that it is “well-executed menacing music.”
These remixes hardly change that assessment, for the most
part. The very first track breaks the rules, though –
it’s the band’s own remix of “Parasitic
Static.” The new version, though still with a strong
beat, is less dance and more sinister sounding, more mechanical.
I like the 11grams extended remix of “Invariant,”
the original being harsher and more grating, the remix sounding
more militaristic. Many of the remixes are cleaner sounding,
sometimes more evil, deeper. I love the deep bass resonance
punctuating “Impulse Matrix” as remixed by Damn
the Witch Siren. “Metaxy,” remixed by Skeleton
Hands,” thrums with the rhythms of urban life in a gritty
city. “Brain In 3” comes across as more of an
epic theme for a dystopian science fiction film as reconstructed
by Soft Riot, but when given the treatment by Slighter, it’s
eerie as hell, and I fear for my soul. It’s simply one
of the best tracks of the LP. Less successful, in my opinion,
is the remixed version of the title track from last year’s
LP. Red Pyramid took “Metaxy” and thinned it out,
making it lighter and less grating in some parts, harsher
and noisier in others, and it feels somewhat disjointed to
me. And Freeze Etch’s remix of “Extreme Unction”
just isn’t quite as extreme as the original. But overall,
the experiment is a success.
 THE
KINSEY SICKS – Quarantunes (www.kinseysicks.com)
The world’s first “beauty shop quartet,”
The Kinsey Sicks, the self-styled “girl-group made of
boys” sing what they call “Dragapella,”
drag queen a cappella. What we get is sixteen songs of social
and political commentary, sung in glorious four-part harmony
and with a wicked sense of humor. The topics are all current
and relevant, touching on topics such as the global pandemic
(“Social Distance”), political corruption at the
highest levels of government (“Grifters”), presidential
sex scandals (“Stormy Daniels”) and the politicization
of the US Department of Justice (“Mad Attorney General”).
In the best parody song tradition, many of the songs have
familiar melodies, such as “Scalia,” a song about
the awful legacy of the late Supreme Court justice sung to
the tune of “Maria,” from “West Side Story.”
The singing is gorgeous, and the satire bites hard. I love
lines like “Lady Justice is found giving you the bird”
that comes at the end of the track. “Stormy Daniels”
is sung to the tune of the old standard, “Stormy Weather,”
and views the situation from the point of view of the titular
porn star. We get a lush Christmas carol sung to the tune
of “Noel,” but here it’s called “Nobel,”
and sings the story of Donald Trump’s jealousy of Barack
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, and how he doesn’t
deserve the one for which he was controversially nominated.
“No Nobel unless it’s delivered to your prison
cell,” the song ends, on a bright note. Another holiday
tune, “Santa Baby,” becomes the backdrop for a
commentary on racist immigration policy called “Anchor
Baby.” Even Gilbert and Sullivan are pressed into service,
with their melody from “I Am the Very Model of a Modern
Major-General “ stolen and recycled into “Mad
Attorney General,” which rips Bill Barr to shreds. And,
after singing the song at a more moderate pace than G&S
would have it, we hear the shout, “Wow! Those lyrics
were terrible! Can you sing them so fast no one can possibly
understand them?” This is followed by the brisker pace
of the original, showing off the group’s musical chops.
Other topics include the various types of privilege that allow
some to stay blind to discrimination in our society, such
as weight privilege, white privilege, male privilege, and
straight privilege. The sharp wit can be heard on this track
after the first verse about “weight privilege,”
when we hear a speaker interrupt, saying, “Um, I think
you mean white privilege, not weight privilege.” “White
privilege?” comes the reply, “I never heard of
that!” “The Sound of Sirens” is a beautiful
hymn to the authoritarian use of police violence to suppress
the voice of the people, of course to the melody of the Simon
and Garfunkel classic, “The Sound of Silence.”
“Tomorrow,” the song from “Annie,”
keeps its title but gains lyrics about the joys that tomorrow
will bring as we emerge from the shadowy Trump administration
years. Great singing, sizzling lyrics, timely topics, and
drag queens; The Kinsey Sicks have it all on this fun LP!
 MYLES
MANLEY – Cometh The Softies (Witter On, www.witteron.ie)
Irish musician Myles Manley is a perfect example of why, sometimes,
less is more. The sparse arrangements on the ten songs on
this LP are absolutely perfect the way they are. When you
write and play excellent songs, there’s no need to muddy
them up with thick arrangements or overproduction. A couple
guitars and minimalist percussion are all you need, sometimes.
The best comparison to Manley’s vocals I think I can
make would be David Byrne. The tentative nature of the vocals,
mated to the minimalist arrangements, the repeated melodic
lines, and enigmatic lyrics speaks to me. “Were We Under
Attack From England” opens the album with bluesy electric
guitars right out of the bayou combined with a flamenco style
acoustic guitar, machine gun staccato percussion, and a deep
BRAAAP” from the electric guitar punctuating some of
the lines. “Relax; Enjoy Your Night Upon the Town”
comes next, with a breezy melody from the electric guitar,
an even more staccato percussion underneath, and lyrics that
I think could be quite political, talking about use of entertainment
to distract how we’re all losing ground daily against
the “1%,” those with all the money and power who
keep eroding our freedoms and our economic means to survive.
“They're coming after me and then they're coming after
you! / And then -- I'm going to tell you just exactly what
we'll do -- / We're gonna have a party, yeah, we're gonna
have a ball, / They're going to forget that there is a problem
at all,” says one version of the chorus. “Cinema
/ Mild Manners” is one of my favorites. What I can only
assume is heavily processed guitar makes a different sort
of “braaaaap!!” sound, while the minimalist melody
has the energy of a spy thriller soundtrack. You would think
the lyrics would be equally mysterious and thrilling –
but they’re about wanting to go see a movie at the cinema,
but encountering someone who’s pissed on the seats and
refused to wipe it up. The intensity of the guitars is a joy
and the use of just a few notes to create a phrase that’s
repeated over an over to crank of the tension is extremely
well done. Those lyrics could well be about people who contribute
to polluting the earth and causing climate change, but refusing
to change their ways, despite the obvious mess they’re
making. But I could be over-thinking this. “Will Anyone…?”
is a lovely jazz-pop tune, and I surmise it’s about
hypocrites who decry injustice while visiting injustice on
others themselves. “The injustice of it all / Sent you
whirring out of control… How can someone cut so clean
/ Be so unbelievably mean? / Working out your false dichotomies.”
Less certainly can be more. Fewer notes, minimalist melodies
and minimalist instrumentation, fewer words, even, arcane
lyrics. These things can add up to something so much more
than the sum of the parts. And in the case of Myles Manley,
they certainly do. This is one of the most unique, fascinating,
and fun records I’ve heard this year.
 THE
MYRRHDERERS – The Myrrhderers Sleigh Christmas (themyrrhderers.bandcamp.com)
Many many years ago, when I DJ’ed a weekly shift at
a fully DIY student run college radio station in Chicago,
I looked forward every year to the holiday season. I made
a practice of collecting punk rock, indie, and off-the-wall
holiday music and once a year I would go crazy playing those
songs over the air. It started out as just the first couple
of 15 to 20 minute sets in my shift, but as my collection
grew it slowly took over the entire four-hours. I miss those
days, but The Myrrhderers (pronounced like murderers, of course),
a super group from the North Pole, are here to give us a punk
blast just in time for jolly old Saint Nicholas to slide down
your chimney and give your whole household the ‘rona.
These little elves give us five familiar songs of the season,
ready for shredding your skateboard over the blanket of fresh
snow. “Deck The Halls” is a bright, shiny Fat
Wreck style version of the classic carol, while the band’s
rendition of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is
some speedy, dark metallic punk, the perfect sound for saving
us all from Satan’s power and giving us tidings of comfort
and joy. I really like the slower grunge version of “Do
You Hear What I Hear,” with its great 90s indie sound,
and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is
a lovely jangly pop tune here. Closing out the EP is “Carol
of the Bells” as you’ve never heard it before.
Dark, powerful, metallic, and sinister are some adjectives
that come to mind. Some people get sick of Christmas music
fast when the holidays come around, but when you have non-traditional
versions like these from The Myrrhderers, they’re a
lot of fun.
 KATY
J. PEARSON – Return (Heavenly Recordings, www.heavenlyrecordings.com)
After trying the major label pathway to making music, in a
project with her brother that “went to shit,”
as she says, Katy J. Pearson is striking out on her own with
this debut solo LP from the UK native. In some of the interviews
and write-ups I’ve seen there are references to an Americana
influence in the music, and I guess I can hear that, if only
slightly. What I hear is sweet indie music with hints of UK
folk influence. Sure, maybe there are some similarities to
American artists like Lydia Loveless, but there’s more
alternative here than country twang, especially in the bright
sunny opening, “Tonight,” even though it begins
with a chorus of weeping fiddles. The sparkling acoustic guitar
and up-tempo beat says “pop” way more than country.
And when the trumpets come in, there’s not a cowboy
in earshot. The music on the ten tracks is light and airy,
pleasant to listen to. I like the drive of “Beautiful
Soul;” the arrangement evolves from simple to complex,
and the cello that comes in later in the song is simply gorgeous.
As nice as the music is, there’s something about Pearson’s
vocals on some of the tracks that bothers me. On the title
track, there’s a little too much vibrato, her voice
rapidly wavering on some of the longer notes. There’s
also a quality to her vocals that bothers me a bit –
I can’t put my finger on it. The register is higher
than I like, I guess? That combined with the quaver that appears
on various songs is a bit off-putting. “Fix Me Up”
is a perfect example of this dichotomy; I love the bouncy
melody and the arrangement is fun and pleasing, but the vocals
grate on me. It’s like that on a lot of these tracks.
 UNITED
DEFIANCE – Empty Advice (www.facebook.com/uniteddefiance)
Oakland’s United Defiance play melodic punk in the 90s
skate-punk vein, and they’re one of the better DIY bands
in the genre. Their latest release is a new single, “Empty
Advice,” which is a harbinger of a new LP coming sometime
next year. It’s typical United Defiance fare, up-tempo
melodic punk rock, crunchy guitars, gang vocals, and loaded
with energy. One of the things that make United Defiance such
a fun band to watch and listen to is the joy that comes though
in their music; it’s obvious they’re having a
lot of fun playing. The song, at least how I interpret it,
seems to be about how people tend to look to others for what
to think and how to live, not standing up for themselves and
what they believe. But being your own person can lead to better
things, as the chorus says, “Come out swinging if your
backs against the wall / There's so many people that want
to watch you fall / Sometimes you're right sometimes you're
wrong / Just stand your ground and write your own song.”
Be yourself – it’s a simple message, but hard
to do sometimes. Now I am eagerly anticipating the LP.
 RICKY
– Palm Trees (rickysmusic.bandcamp.com)
Ricky is Ricky Schmidt. You may know him from Western Settings
or Hey, Chels, the two bands in which he’s currently
active. This is his debut solo LP, and he’s joined by
Shane Hendry on drums and Hey Chels band mate Jax on backing
vocals. The music on “Palm Trees” teeters between
the styles represented by Ricky’s other bands, Western
Settings being the more emotional and epic sounding band,
Hey Chels representing the poppier side. Here we get songs
that are big and expansive, yet poppy, bouncy, and darkly
bright (the overall feel is bright, but some of the guitar
sounds are sad and lonely). The production has an interesting
quality, with vocals done lo-fi and with loads of reverb,
but the instrumentals somewhat cleaner. This is courtesy of
Tyson “Chicken” Annicharico, bassist/vocalist
of the band Dead To Me, who has been making a name for himself
as a producer, as well. Ricky developed a relationship with
Annicharico when he produced two Western Settings records
over a five-year period. “Having Tyson in the studio
is a pleasure,” says Schmidt. “Tyson knows exactly
what I’m trying to accomplish musically and he always
has the best ideas on how to achieve it.” Besides the
selective use of lo-fi recording and reverb, there’s
an interesting layering of sound that creates an amazing texture
in the eleven songs here. In this way, the album reminds me
a bit of Canadian artist Pat Jordache, who has released records
under his own name and collaborated with tUnE-yArDs’
Merrill Garbus in their band, Sister Suvi. Credit for the
sound also belongs to engineer Brandon Mericle and mixer Scott
Goodrich.
The record opens with “Bored,” a jumpy up-tempo
track celebrating the collapse of civilization. “I
think Ishmael might be right, I think we might be dying
out / The earth is caving right in, our pres is celebrating
/ The kids are calling it quits, there ain't no future in
this at all,” Schmidt sings. Crazy conspiracy theories
plaguing our nation are referenced, too: “Sayonara
my friend, I see those toes dangling off the edge / Of the
western flat earth, I'll take a big plate of dirt / Then
wash it down with some oil, and make a helmet of foil.”
The song is anything but boring, with its big bold sound.
The guitar tone is amazing, almost growling, the bass line
is running up and down like mad, and the high-pitched backing
vocals are amazing.
One really nice touch that adds to the texturing of these
songs is the miscellaneous percussion. There’s more
than just a standard drum kit in action. That’s all
Shane Hendry’s doing. Hendry’s played in a number
of bands, including Eskara, From Scars, and Reunions, and
Schmidt, after initially planning to do the drums himself,
decided to turn to Hendry, who readily agreed. “I
sent Shane the demos without drums and he sent them back
with his better versions,” says Schmidt. “When
he sent back ‘Hot Summer’ it had crazy bongo
drums and other auxiliary percussion on it. I remember just
hearing it and texting Shane telling him, ‘more of
that please.’ Shane put auxiliary percussion all over
all the songs and it completely changed the whole record
in the best way possible.”
Even more than the other songs, “New Day” reminds
me of Pat Jordache, particularly the layering of sound and
the way the melodic line is constructed. The acoustic guitars,
the various percussion instruments bouncing around, and
the overdubbed vocals add together to create sensory overload
in the best way. Its message is one of fatalism, with lyrics
talking about how “There's no point in fighting if
it's something you cannot win / The night falls, the wind
blows, the sun brings a total new day.” It’s
one of my favorites of the record. The lead single, “Escape
Artist,” underneath the layered production, is at
its heart a great power pop song, with loads of hooks. “This
song is about needing to step away from the world and allow
yourself time away from everything,” says Schmidt.
“We all need breaks and especially during a time like
the one we are currently all in." “Like A Cult”
has an interesting Latin sound to it, while “Vietnam”
is a quiet song with acoustic guitar and big vocals that
are pulled back in the mix, sounding far away. The lyrics
reference the idea of just quitting everything, packing
up, and moving far away (to Vietnam). “Social Me”
is a scathing indictment of social media and the trolls
that inhabit it, I really love the chorus on this song,
in particular, with the rapid strumming guitar technique
that’s used, and the thick layering of sound.
This may be one of those “unpopular opinions”
that people like to post on social media, but I honestly
think Ricky’s solo LP is better than either his work
with Western Settings or Hey, Chels. I really like these
songs; they’re pretty different from a lot of the
sameness happening out there.
 SWANS
– Children of God / Feel Good Now (Young God Records,
www.younggodrecords.com / Mute Records, www.mute.com)
Swans are rereleasing a newly remastered edition of their
fifth studio LP “Children of God.” Originally
released in 1987, “Children of God” saw its last
reissue in 1997, packaged together on CD with “World
of Skin,” an LP released in 1988 under the band name
“Skin,” a collaboration of Swans’ Michael
Gira and Jarboe. “Feel Good Now” compiles live
recordings from Swans’ 1987 European tour, and was originally
released in that year, seeing its only reissue back in 2002.
By 1987, Swans had already transitioned away from their earlier
era of intense grinding noise and pounding beats into something
no less experimental, but much more accessible, with droning
melodies, vague ethnic sounds, tribal rhythms, and ethereal
choirs, plus Gira’s ever-present basso profundo vocals.
You can hear this transition in the opening track, “New
Mind.” It has an intense, crashing beat and a noisy
two-chord drone, but this is less noise and more music than
earlier releases. And rather than shouting, Gira’s booming
vocals are intoning the lyrics. Lyrics on this album revolve
around the contradictions of human existence, sin and forgiveness,
redemption and hell, sex and damnation vs. love and salvation.
After the bombastic opening track, “In My Garden”
is quiet and ethereal, piano and flute playing over a throbbing
guitar, while soprano vocals ring out breathy words that feel
almost like a magical incantation for immortality. “Our
Love Lies” is a dirge in waltz time, a plea to God to
have mercy and a declaration of belief in love. Much medieval
liturgical music was in three-four time, because it represented
the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
so important in the Catholic church, and the vocal chorale
of this song represents the divine, while the wailing guitars
and crashing percussion seems to represent the sinning nature
of humanity. I’m fascinated by “Sex, God, Sex,”
which encapsulates these contradictions. “I will pray.
I will pray. I will go down low, and I will pray to you,”
and then “I will beg you Lord. I will deny myself, I
will deny you Lord. Though I’ve done nothing wrong never
in my life, no no no no no. I will beg you Lord, and I will
pray for you to forgive me now.” At once believing in
the need for forgiveness while also believing that what some
call our “sins” are not that, it’s the conundrum
of human existence. “Blood and Honey” drips with
sensuality and foreign mystery. “Like a Drug (Sha La
La La)” has the droning vocals of mid period Current
93 mixed with the martial rhythms of Der Blutharsch. It’s
one of the noisier tracks of the LP, too, representing that
transitional period I mentioned, bleats and blats interjecting
throughout the track. I love the military bombast of “Beautiful
Child,” sounding dark and fascistic, an incessant drumbeat
accompanied by a twisted fanfare. The lyrics are equally twisted,
with Gira first shouting about the titular beautiful child,
declaring his love for this child and how he will hold him
in his arms, but then declaring with equal assurance, “Listen
to him cry. I can kill the child, the beauti¬ful child.
I will kill the child, the beautiful child.” I liken
this to so-called populist/nationalist leaders who declare
their love of country, but who, upon attaining power, systematically
destroy the thing they claim to love. Sound familiar? It’s,
unfortunately, a recurring theme of our species. There’s
the pair of tracks, “Real Love” and “Blind
Love,” with the former being a warmer song about the
worshipfulness of love, and the latter a very mechanical sounding
track, the lyrics of which refer to the neediness that can
lead to “fake love.” The closing track is the
title track, and is a bright chorale, “We are special,
we are perfect. We were born in the sight of God,” the
vocals intone; “Our suffering bodies will suffer no
more. We are children, children of God.”
The live LP, “Feel Good Now,” which accompanies
this reissue, contains live recordings of most of the tracks
from “Children of God.” But being Swans, the
live recordings bear little resemblance to the studio recordings.
For example, “Blind Love,” which opens the performance
(after a brief “Intro”), is a lengthy improvisation
over the mechanical beats, the lyrics not present or buried
beneath the power of the instrumentals. This is Swans reverting
to the industrial noise of their past. “Like a Drug
(Sha La La La)” is powerful and noisy, more like an
enormous factory floor than a martial rhythm, all sorts
of grating and crashing noises going on, and the vocals
sound darker and more evil than the chanting of the studio
recording. The track builds and builds, getting noisier
and more intense; it’s breathtaking. I’ve never
had the opportunity to see Swans live, but it’s clear
that they use the written songs as just a starting point,
a suggestion, and the live performances are freer and more
improvised than a lot of music. It must make for an intense
show-going experience. Plus, I’ve been told they’re
one of the loudest live bands ever. The performances on
the live recording are much more intense than those on the
studio album. “Beautiful Child” opens as noisily
as any of the early Swans cuts in this live performance,
before settling into the martial beat, but here there’s
more clanging and shouting, a loud declaration as if the
convince others when one doesn’t believe oneself.
Here, too, the beats sound more mechanical, like the music
of the neo-futurists, industry moving incessantly. I think
the studio versions of these songs are more nuanced, and
have more varied textures. I can see the allure of a live
Swans performance, though. The sheer intensity can bring
about an altered state of being.
 ANXIETY
SPIRAL – Demo (Knife Hits Records, www.knifehitsrecords.com)
Brutal, thrashy hardcore attacks you right from your speakers,
showing no mercy, as this self-recorded four-song demo explodes
with rage. Three of the tracks are the expected sort of hardcore
sound, fast and loud, dark angular chord changes, and angry
shouted lyrics. And as good as those are, one track stands
out above the others, “The Lobbyist.” It’s
a quickstep waltz with awesomely dissonant guitars, pounding
drums and rumbling bass, and the back half gets all eerie
and mysterious sounding, an evil noise backing an ominous
lecture about the dangerous mind control capabilities of the
Internet. I wish this release wasn’t quite as lo-fi
as it is, because this deserves to be herd more clearly.
 THE
CRIBS – Night Network (Sonic Blew Records, www.thecribs.com)
In 2017 The UK band The Cribs released their LP, “24-7
Rock Star Shit,” recorded by Steve Albini. It became
their fourth consecutive UK Top Ten album. The band, who had
earned multiple Q and NME awards, quickly parted ways with
their longtime management company, but soon found that the
legal implications meant they were unable to record or tour.
It almost ended the band. But a year later, the band was asked
to open for Foo Fighters at Eithad Stadium in Manchester.
They were discussing their woes with their new friend, Dave
Grohl who simply told them to come to L.A. and record in his
studio. Now, three years later, even with the band scattered
across great distances (Portland, Oregon, New York City, and
the UK), they’re back with “Night Network,”
their eight full-length LP. And even though they’re
a modern rock band playing music in 2020, you can hear the
Beatles’ influence in some of these songs. They sound
like someone took power pop and tried to engineer it into
sounding more like indie rock. Listen “Running Into
You,” the second song of the LP, and you’ll see
what I mean. The hooks are very 60s, but the engineering gives
the guitars a very buzzy fuzzy Jesus and Mary Chain sort of
sound. And “Screaming In Suburbia,” even though
it’s a slower number with a ballad-ish feel (though
it’s mid-tempo, not slow), feels like it’s got
mid-period Beatles sounds underneath the production. I like
“Goodbye,” the track that opens the LP. It opens
with a vocal chorale, oddly distorted music underneath, and
once the song gets going it’s got a retro 60s pop feel,
full of reverb and sadness, Beach Boys style melody and harmonies.
The distorted guitar line slays me. I also like “I Don’t
Know Who You Are,” a track that starts cleanly and gets
more and more distortion as it evolves toward the end. There’s
a heavily distorted guitar lick that’s repeated over
and over that sends chills through my body, too. Besides these
few songs, I just can’t get into this, despite repeated
listening. There’s too much sameness, too little variety
in the sound. The tempos of every song are pretty close to
each other, there’s little dynamic change. It’s
OK, I guess. I guess?
 THE
FLAT FIVE – Another World (Pravda Records, www.pravdamusic.com)
Well, isn’t this just a little ray of sunshine to light
up the bleakness of 2020? The Flat Five are a group of Chicago
musicians, including Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor (Neko Case,
The Decemberists), Scott Ligon and Casey McDonough (NRBQ)
and Alex Hall (J.D. McPherson). These in-demand musicians
stole time away from their other endeavors over a more than
one-year period to put together this eclectic collection of
pop, jazz, and country tunes. And while they aren’t
going to set the world on fire, they’re light and pleasant,
just the antidote for these dark times. “Drip a Drop”
is a blend of pop, rock, and a touch of R&B, with a retro
AM radio flair. I adore the breezy jazz tune, “Look
at the Birdy, sounding like something right out of a smoky
club from the 1950s. “I Don’t Even Care”
is another pop tune, with a cute bounce and rays of 70s sunshine
and rainbows. We even get a heartbreaking country folk tune
in “The Great State of Texas,” a pretty waltz
played on piano, bass, and brushed drums with harmonica accompaniment.
It’s a song of farewell, recounting all of the things
the narrator will miss, particularly their dearest love, as
the day of execution at the prison arrives in the “great”
state of Texas. Another waltz is the pretty, jazzy “Girl
of Virginia;” the bass harmonica that’s used to
punctuate some of the phrases is quite effective, and the
piano and brushed drums are lovely. “Butterflies Don’t
Bite” sounds like something right out of the Herb Alpert
catalog, with its Latin jazz aesthetic, with marimba underneath
the trumpet. “Over and Out,” which closes the
LP has a bit of Latin jazz, too, but seems more to be the
sort of easy listening pop that was popular in the 1960s.
Overall, like I said, there’s nothing striking or groundbreaking
here, but it’s a nice breath of pleasant fresh air to
take one’s mind off all the ills swirling around us,
an escape.
 GOINGS
– It’s For You (Know Hope Records, www.knowhoperecords.com)
After last year’s three-song EP, this is the debut full-length
LP for this Philadelphia band. And the band is a conundrum.
Some of these tracks are brilliant, sparkling mathish pop
music, while some of them are very slick-sounding commercial
pop music. And some tracks are both. For example, the opening
track, “Phone Numbers,” has some great math-like
rhythms and the bright keyboards add a shimmer to the song.
But the gliding harmonized vocals are a little too slick for
my tastes. “Blue Sky,” on the other hand, is one
of the best tracks of the LP, with sections of nice indie
pop and sections of intense instrumental gymnastics. The vocals
in the more animated sections are quite enthusiastic. “Trying-Dying”
sounds like a modern indie updating of an 80s new wave song,
which is kind of odd. I’m not sure the synth tone selected
for the song quite goes with the melody, sounding more like
cheap sci-fi than pop. And “Haircut” stands out
from the rest of the tracks, but not in a good way. This track
sounds too much like commercial pop music; with a slightly
funky melodic line, it sounds like something a boy band might
perform. I do enjoy “It’s For You,” with
its flittering guitars and breezy melody. “Elevator”
is an interesting track that has parts that sound like dull
adult contemporary rock and parts that are rhythmically challenging
and brilliant. So, overall it’s a mixed bag –
the musicianship is amazing and some of the arrangements are
exciting and demanding of the listener’s attention,
while other parts are uninspiring and characterless.
 HOMECAMP
– Did We Return As Something Else (Wiretap Records,
www.wiretaprecords.com)
I’ve commented before on the consistency and care with
which Wiretap boss Rob Castellon curates the bands for his
label. But Homecamp is completely different from anything
Wiretap has put out, and unlike anything you’ve likely
listened to on a regular basis. Big emotional melodies ebb
and swell, with synths, faux strings, and sometimes piano
providing the primary instrumentals. Boy-band style harmonization
is featured in the vocals. The result bears no relationship
to punk, pop punk, post punk, indie rock, or any of the related
genres we’ve come to expect from Wiretap’s growing
stable of bands. Instead, this is big ballad-like pop rock,
the kind of stuff you might see someone perform on a darkened
stage with just a spotlight on them, maybe with superimposed
video of waterfalls and other natural surroundings. Kind of
the new age of emo-pop? And it’s not just a couple of
slow songs and a few faster ones – it’s all the
same sort of ambient emo-pop ballad stuff. I really could
not get into this.
 THE
JUNIOR LEAGUE – Fall Back + Summer of Lies (Kool Kat
Musik, www.koolkatmusik.com)
“Summer of Lies” is a 4-song EP released digitally
earlier this year and “Fall Back” was originally
released a decade ago under the name of the force behind The
Junior League, “ Joe Adragna. What we get here are the
EP plus a bonus song (a cover of The Beach Boys’ “’Til
I Die”) and the LP, remixed, remastered, resequenced,
and in some cases rerecorded, and there are a couple of bonus
songs here, too. The sounds are actually quite varied, ranging
from jangly retro pop rock to more modern indie sounds and
singer-songwriter fare. My favorites are those more retro
jangly songs, like the opening track, “You’re
Gonna Die Alone.” The guitar jangle reminds me a bit
of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun,” but
this song has hints of twang, too, and the deep growling bass
is cool. “Leave Me Resigned” is another with that
British Invasion sound, but tempered with some more modern
indie and a clear singer-songwriter vision. The title track
from the “Fall Back” LP has a gorgeous lush sound,
and the guitar sound is spot on. This one actually makes me
think about the fall, with cooling temperatures, leaves changing
colors, and cloudy skies. “Depot Park” reminds
me of a pared back remix of something J. Robbins (Jawbox,
burning Airlines) might have written but as the song evolves
it gets thicker and richer, adding more instrumentation, including
piano and violin. “Like Nothing Else” has a 70s
folk-rock sound, and a jazzy feel added by the gorgeous Fender
Rhodes sounding keyboards and flute-tuned synths. Those are
the songs that stand out the most to me, with the rest being
solid indie songs, if a little on the softer side.
The “Summer of Lies” EP, recorded a decade
later, has more twang in the songs, yet still has a retro
pop flair, as can be heard on the opening track, “Summer
of Flies.” It’s got more than a hint of 60s
pop and a bit of country in the mix, but there’s a
high-pitched guitar buzzing around, I guess supposed to
represent the flies? It’s annoying, but then, so are
flies. “Make Up Your Mind” has a 70s protest
song vibe that’s been softened. “Out On The
Side” creates a quiet gospel atmosphere, and “Didn’t
Want to Have to Do It” is lounge-jazz-pop. As far
as that Beach Boys cover, I could have done without it.
It’s the weakest track of the bunch, in my opinion,
with multi-tracked harmonized vocals and keyboards/synths.
It sounds like it was recorded as an afterthought, and the
vocal mixing doesn’t sound right. But overall, The
Junior League is a pleasant listen: pop sounds with a soft
edge.
 MORAL
MAZES – Gold Beach Fortress (Rad Girlfriend Records,
www.radgirlfriendrecords.com, Little Rocket Records, www.littlerocket.co.uk)
Moral Mazes is the new band featuring members of Jawbox, Office
of Future Plans, and Airstream Futures, with Jeff Dean on
guitar, J. Robbins on bass, and Darren Zentek on drums. The
band uses a rotating roster of guests for vocals, with Jonah
Matranga featured on their previous release and Michael Feerick
on this one (their Facebook page also lists Bob Nanna, so
perhaps there’s another couple of songs awaiting a future
release?). The two songs here are lush indie rock, with full
guitars, tough drums, and smooth, dreamy vocals. The A-side
is the title track, a mid-tempo rocker with dense, luxuriant
guitars and ethereal vocals. The B-side track, “Illinoise
by Numbers,” is slower, dreamier, yet with a more deliberate
beat, and I think the better of two excellent tracks. We need
more than singles, though…
 SPENCER
CULLUM’S COIN COLLECTION (yk Records, www.ykrecords.com)
That this debut LP sounds like the psychedelic folk-pop music
of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain is not a surprise, because
Nashville resident Spencer Cullum relocated there from London
(by way of Detroit). He spends much of his time as an in-demand
studio musician for the likes of Kesha, Caitlin Rose, Deer
Tick, Miranda Lambert, and Little Big Town. But now, Cullum
is emerging from studio anonymity to focus on music of his
own. “I wanted to write a very quintessential English
folk record, but with really good Nashville players."
Cullum says. And if you’ve ever watched English neo-pagan
films of the 1970s, such as The Wicker Man, you’ll realize
that Cullum has succeeded. Blending both acoustic guitar and
electric steel guitar, Cullum creates that psychedelic neo-pagan
folk atmosphere, and you feel transported. The waltz time
opening track, “Jack of Fools” is a perfect example
of this, Cullum’s vocals singing softly and casually.
And the obsession with nature that was contained in the British
neo-pagan movement, mirroring the island’s religious
beliefs of the pre-Roman Celtic tribes, comes through in the
opening of “To Be Blinkered.” The track opens
with the sounds of birdsong, before the quiet acoustic guitar,
piano, tapping percussion, and smooth subtle vocals begin.
It’s quietly gorgeous. “Imminent Shadow”
crosses psychedelic folks with quiet acoustic sounds a la
Nick Drake, and is one of the prettiest songs on the LP, with
flute and bass clarinet swelling and ebbing in the background
as the acoustic guitar plays a winding melodic line. There
are some sounds that are somewhat different, lest you think
this is a one-note album. “Tombre Enmorsheux”
is less psychedelic folk than it is straight up 70s light
pop music, while “Dieterich Buxtehude” is an ambient
instrumental track with some 70s prog rock aspects, and “The
Dusty Floor” transforms from psychedelic folk to a Pink
Floyd inspired rock song at the halfway mark. If you’re
looking for something calming to listen to this winter while
curled up in front of the fireplace, this would be a good
record to include in your playlist.
 THE
CASKET LOTTERY – Short Songs for End Times (Wiretap
Records, www.wiretaprecords.com / Second Nature Recordings,
www.secondnaturerecordings.com)
This is the first new LP from The Casket Lottery since 2012’s
“Real Fear.” And that LP was released in their
short-lived 2012 reunion, their previous release coming in
2003. The first few songs of this newest LP are nothing short
of outstanding. They’re a throwback to 90s post-hardcore
and post-emo, with a huge sound, lots of angular yet smooth
chord changes, and plenty of meter shifts. I love the opening
track, “You Are a Knife.” It’s powerful
post-hardcore, with angular guitar stabs, a throbbing bass
line, and jutting meter changes. Vocals are sung/shouted with
intensity. The whole package reminds me of some of the bands
I used to love back in the 90s. Even better is “Big
Heart Closed Mind,” which is no less powerful, but is
smoother and more melodic and has more meter changes, and
the guitar lines are gorgeous. “More Blood” goes
a step further in making things smoother and less acute. It
still packs an emotional wallop, though. Some of the songs
are less my taste, however, sounding more like the overblown,
slick “emo” of the 2000s. “Sisyphus Blues”
falls into this category, a quieter, smoother angst-filled
song. “Unalone” is even quieter and smoother,
and even less my taste. A number of the songs lie somewhere
between these extremes, though, such as “Trust As a
Weapon.” It has some of the angularity and meter changes,
but it’s also got a silkier, more polished sound. Same
thing with the closer, “Sad Dream,” which has
a bit of jangle in it, smoothness, yet some angularity. I
really wish there were more songs like those few I really
liked, because those were excellent. I do feel that fans of
2000s post-emo are going to eat this up, because it definitely
is better than the run of the mill 2000s emo band.
 DEENA
– Some Days (www.deenashoshkes.com)
New Jersey singer/songwriter/rocker Deena Shoshkes of The
Cucumbers has released a couple of LPs now under her own name,
and now we get this new single, featuring two new songs, “Dance
The Night Away” and “Thursday.” The A-side
is a classic retro rocker with a bluesy country edge, while
the B-side is more of a classic rock song, but still with
a bit of blues mixed in, kind of like a Rolling Stones song.
Both are smooth and light, maybe a little too light, but they’re
pleasant and bouncy enough.
 DIVIDED
HEAVEN FEATURING LYDIA LOVELESS – They Poisoned Our
Fathers (Smartpunk Records, www.smartpunk.com)
Two of great singer-songwriters team up on this new single
from Divided Heaven. Jeff Berman, the driving force behind
Divided Heaven, and Lydia Loveless, who recently released
an amazing album of her own (see further down in this column
for that review) bring us a powerful song that’s not
only an anti-Trump protest song, but it’s also a heart-wrenching
song about the generational divide that’s alienating
parents and children from one another. There are lyrics referencing
the use of fear to motivate voters, and how fear turns to
hatred, about how religion and patriotism have been turned
into nothing more than tools to control a population. The
numbness that society now has to mass shootings, lives worth
less than in death, and a driving profit motive for everything
are all decried. But even more distressing are the lyrics
about how the fear and hatred have infected our older family
members, negative emotions motivating their decisions, and
the chorus that declares, “There ain’t enough
love / There ain’t enough to change your mind / There
ain’t enough love to change your mind / Have I failed
you like the way that you failed me? / There ain’t enough
love.” Berman and Loveless’ vocals complement
each other perfectly, and the music is what we’ve come
to expect from Divided Heaven, loaded with emotion. It’s
been a couple years since Divided Heaven’s last LP came
out, and this timely single makes me yearn for a new one.
 THE
GOALIE’S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK – Ways
of Hearing (Count Your Lucky Stars Records, countyourluckystars.limitedrun.com)
The Philadelphia band with an impossibly long name and impossibly
large roster (six to seven members!) are releasing their debut
LP, and it features ten quietly lush songs. The first track,
“An Olive Coat,” reminds me of Slint, but with
dueling male and female vocals winding around each other,
and with violin weeping a counter-melody. The song starts
with quiet breathy vocals over subtly jangly guitar. The violin
comes in, as do keyboards, drums, and another guitar, yet
despite the number of instruments playing, the song still
feels hushed. “We Love You So Much” follows, with
the same sense of stillness, but it slowly builds, the violin
soaring. I really like the mostly acoustic “The Best
of all Possible Worlds,” which is an understated pop
song, delicate plinks from a keyboard punctuating the melody.
I adore the contrasting vocals on this song, with the male
lead almost whispering and the female lead more emphatic.
“The Cat Stands On My Arm” is gorgeous and fairly
even until we get two thirds through, when it suddenly builds,
and the distorted guitar harmonics fill the space, the violin
getting more intense, and the whole thing creating a huge
dreamy soundscape. The whole album is like this, very understated,
very pretty, with those wonderfully contrasting vocals. I
like this.
 HOUSEGHOST
(Rad Girlfriend Records, www.radgirlfriendrecords.com /
Cat’s Claw Records, catsclawrecords.bigcartel.com)
While one would think from the band name and the cover art
that this Dayton, Ohio band are a seasonal one-trick spooky
punk band, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure,
there are some songs that reference some eerie things, but
take a closer look at the cover. Those jack-o-lanterns are
smiling and cuddling. And the songs are more about typical
pop punk themes of loneliness, depression, isolation, and
self-loathing, which can be scary enough when you’re
trying to make your way through life. Musically, the songs
range from driving punk rock to bouncy pop punk, from pop
to near hardcore. That said, that opening track, “Book
of Shadows,” sure opens on a dark theme, and then turns
into a killer of a driving punk track, dark and briskly brooding.
I really like “Darling,” which reminds me of a
brighter, poppier Marked Men. “Hollow Hallway”
is an excellent retro pop song with a rocking edge. I like
the mix of goth punk and hardcore on “Marceline,”
giving it a cool retro 80s sound, while “Zozo”
is a great hardcore track with just the right amount of melody
and pop bounce. “In a Box” is even harder edged,
but then we also get the slower, poppier “Deep Inside
Your Heart,” which is almost the pop punk equivalent
of a romantic crooning song. If Houseghost ever decide to
rearrange and rerecord some of their songs, this would perfect
to slow down considerably and smooth out; it would be so sad,
with lyrics about a person with a heart of stone living life
alone. “Yellow Wallpaper” is the least punk track
of the LP, starting with a thinner quieter sound, then midpoint
turning into a big dreamy shoegaze track. The closing track
is a cover of The Cure song “Boys Don’t Cry,”
and it will make you wonder why it wasn’t recorded this
way to begin with! It’s more thickly arranged than the
original, with a great wall of sound from the guitars, and
the tempo is just a tick quicker, giving the song a bouncier
feel. One of the things that make this record such a good
listen is the variety. Not only are there differences in the
basic sound of the various tracks, the trading off of lead
vocals between the brother and sister duo of Nick and Kayla
Hamby, the founders of Houseghost, keeps things varied and
interesting. Varied and interesting are always good.
 LOVE
TRACTOR (Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, www.hhbtm.com)
In the early 1980s, as the first wave of punk rock died out
and gave way to hardcore, there was also the rise of college
radio and indie rock. Nowhere was this scene more focused
than in Athens, Georgia, where the B-52’s had already
made a name for themselves, and R.E.M. was beginning to make
waves. One band that also came to the fore was Love Tractor,
formed in 1980 by fellow art students Mark Cline, Michael
Richmond, and Armistead Wellford. Their debut self-titled
LP was released two years later on Georgia indie label DB
records, which had also released early records from the B-52’s,
Pylon, Chris Stamey and others. Heading into the studio to
record what was supposed to be their first single, they worked
so fast that they just kept on laying down more tracks, essentially
playing them “live” just as they would at a show.
When they reached eleven songs, they stopped, and their debut
album was ready. Though the band would eventually grow to
include vocals, their early material was fully instrumental.
You can hear hints of the new wave sounds of the day in the
melodies, and you can hear the first beginnings of the guitar
jangle that would morph into indie rock and indie pop. Though
Love Tractor were a distinctly different band than contemporaries
The B-52’s, who played new wave party pop, I can hear
some of the same bass and guitar sounds in some of these songs.
Listen to “Buy Me A Million Dollars,” the first
track, and tell me you don’t hear it. Being an instrumental
band, the tracks aren’t “songs,” but can
be thought of as sonic art. The result is that the album is
more “cerebral” than an album of songs. The lyrics
of a song often tell you what to think about the song, but
when it’s instrumental, you have to think about it more,
immerse yourself in the music, and let it set a mood. I find
it fascinating that “Sixty Degrees Below,” which
one would think would sound frigid, instead sounds sunny and
warm. “Motorcade” has an air of mystery mixed
with the sounds of pomp and self-importance. I love the segments
when the bass and guitar play in unison, the bass playing
a rising line. And the funky pomposity of the other segments
is fun. The synths play an X-Files sounding theme, too, adding
to the mysteriousness. And the album sequencing is done well,
too. As “Festival” fades out, then “Cowboy
Songs” begins, I’m stricken by how well they go
together, the rock solid tempo of both being the same, and
the bass lines being complementary. The bright jangle of the
guitar in the latter song and the angular bass make it a favorite.
“Wheel of Pleasure” definitely gives the sense
of spinning and whirling, and I really like “Chilly
Damn Willy,” a song named for the famous cartoon character.
The guitar lines are hard to describe, but the jangle is great,
and the tune is full of different hooks. The music on this
LP may not be the party music of The B-52’s, and may
not have had the indie-rock impact of R.E.M.’s songs,
but Love Tractor had enormous influence in the early days
of the Athens scene, making this an essential LP.
 PUP
– This Place Sucks Ass (Rise Records, www.riserecords.com)
I was supposed to see PUP last spring at their appearance
at The Casbah, a small dive of a venue in San Diego with a
storied history. PUP never play clubs that small anymore,
and it promised to be a sweaty time full of bruises and fun.
Then the pandemic hit and shows started getting cancelled
or postponed. PUP’s tour was rescheduled to the fall,
and I was to see them on a Tuesday night in October. OK, still
at the Casbah, it will still be crazy, right? The coronavirus
had other ideas, and the tour is now rescheduled for October
– of 2021. But all is not lost! PUP came to the rescue
of fans with a new six-song EP! I’ve heard some people
comment that maybe these are “leftover” tracks
from the “Morbid Stuff” LP recording sessions.
Whether they are or not, I think this EP is tremendously good.
Besides the usual PUP sort of raucous pop punk songs about
deep anxiety and personality disorders, we get songs that
are constructed a little differently, with more dissonance,
more funkiness, even bits of European ethnic folk music! If
these are leftovers from “Morbid Stuff,” it’s
not because they’re lesser songs, it’s because
they didn’t fit, stylistically. I love the differences
in these songs, too. The chorus on “Rot,” which
opens the EP, is standard enough PUP material, but the verses
and bridge are more dissonant, less melodic, harder and darker.
And isn’t it great? “Anaphylaxis” opens
with shrieking dissonant guitars, and then becomes a crazy
off-kilter waltz, with a twisting time signature and skipped
beats, sounding like a rock and roll folk song from deep in
central Europe, but played by angry musicians. It’s
all a frenzy, and you can feel the disorientation of someone
suffering from anaphylactic shock. “I never knew I was
anaphylactic,” the song begins, “I took the medicine,
it wasn’t working.” You can feel everything spinning
out of control, as the song recounts every bad thing that
results, including a trip to the hospital to get pumped full
of chemicals. “A.M. 180” is an uncharacteristically
“pretty” song for PUP, with smooth vocals in the
verses, guitars jangling. But the instrumental chorus is big
and fuzzed out, even as it has a poppy bounce. And it’s
a sappy love song, to boot, about doing everything and nothing,
as long as it’s together. “Whatever, together,”
the outro repeats. The closing track is the shortest, the
most intense, and the best, in my opinion. It’s called
“Edmonton,” and I wanted it to be a little longer.
NOMEANSNO style angularity and funky bass join with dissonant
guitars and manic vocals, twisted lyrics about singing songs
about killing your friends, getting up on stage and performing,
feeling guilty later, getting drunk and leaning on the urinal
thinking about missing birthdays and funerals. Are you guys
OK? Well, hopefully OK enough to keep pumping out more great
records like this one.
 REAL(S)
– D.L.S.B. (Music As Insurgent Art Records, www.facebook.com/Musicasinsurgentart)
London’s REAL(s) has been dropping singles for a year
and half, and now present their debut LP. D.L.S.B. is “Deep
Love Song Bomb,” is not just the name of the LP, it’s
the art collective the group founded, as the band’s
bio says, “to use all forms of art & creativity,
combined with a collection of philosophies including Lorca’s
Duende & DaDaist surrealism, seeking to highlight the
inconsistencies and cracks in the facade of reality, conjuring
a breaking in the chains of our past so we might step into
a future that has long been unclaimed.” OK. Music As
Insurgent Art are releasing this LP in conjunction with Dirty
Water Records, which is know for putting out the best garage
and sleaze rock on their side of the Atlantic. So I expected
something gritty and primitive. And the opening track, the
appropriately titled “Sleazer,” met and exceeded
my expectations. Noisy, lo-fi, rocking garage music came out
of my speakers…but with a difference. Amidst the distortion
was a bouncy pop song, and layered in with the feedback and
sonic muck were interesting electronic effects, like a garage
band on an acid trip making art. “Stop Freaking Out”
continues the journey, still rooted in garage rock and pop,
but the spacey feel gets amped up even more, and this song
reminds me of Ohio’s great psych-punk garage rock band,
Vacation. I like, too, the retro inspired “Wilhelm Scream,”
with hints of 50s doo-wop in the melodic line, but with garage
rock sensibility and an acid-trip psychedelic veneer over
the whole thing. Things take a major turn with “Up The
Slopes,” which has a much more retro 80s art rock sound,
with cool spaced out meanderings and sparkling synths. Two-thirds
through the track it resolves into a dreamy pop song, with
overloaded reverb and distortion, epic horns blaring a fanfare-like
sound. “From The Seed” blends 80s Joy Division/New
Order with modern indie and dream pop sounds to create an
original sound, while “Dark Web Messiah” takes
the dreaminess to new levels. The B-side songs continue the
themes of combining retro art rock, post-punk, psych, garage
rock, and dream pop, with different amounts making up each
track. “M.I.C. Blasters” brings back some of the
raucousness of those first couple of garage rock tracks while
maintaining a strong dose of post punk, while the closer,
“For Al Eternity,” has some very eerie background
jingly music and whispered voices in the introduction, while
the song itself is pretty retro pop, with an ordered chaos
to the chorus. REAL(s) provide an LP that’s both familiar
sounding and fresh, varied yet consistent. I can’t wait
for more.
 SCIENCE
MAN – Science Man II (Big Neck Records, www.bigneckrecords.com)
Science Man is the alter-ego solo project of John Toohill,
utilizing drum machine, guitar, and vocals. Wait, that came
out sounding too sterile. Science Man is noisy, messy punk
fucking rawk! From the greasy garage of “Top of the
Crown” and “Brazilian Napkins,” to the manic
punk noise of “Hit the Switch” and “Into
the Rift,” this is intense stuff. The drum machine pounds
with precision, while the distorted guitar noises cut like
a jagged knife, one that’s not so sharp, so it shreds
rather than slices. Toohill’s vocals match the ferocity
of the music, belted out with the fervor and fanaticism of
an unholy preacher. This is the kind of music that’s
going to mow down everything in its path, you included. The
exceptions to this rule include the penultimate track, ”Keeper
of the Wyrm,” which features steel drum rhythms and
mysterious electronics providing the image of a clockwork
in my mind. It’s oddly relaxing and hypnotic. And the
closing track, “The Gift,” which is a slow, pounding
song with evil intent. The drum machine pounds at a dirge’s
pace, with the bass giving a single note melodic line, the
guitar snarling and laughing as Toohil’s shouts a lyrical
incantation. When you come out the other side of this record,
you’re going to be changed. You will never be the same
again. You can’t go back. Not ever.
 THELONIOUS
MONSTER – Oh That Monster (www.theloniousmonster.com)
The on-again off-again Thelonious Monster is back on again,
for the third time. Originally active from 1984 to 1994, then
again from 2004 to 2011, the band is back with their first
LP since 2004’s “California Clam Chowder.”
I can’t claim to be well versed in the band’s
back catalog or history. Though I’ve often heard the
name and thought it a clever play on influential jazz pianist
and composer Thelonious Monk’s name, I never really
listened to the band’s output. So I come with no expectations
or preconceived notions. And I find that I enjoy the ten songs
on the album, and their blend of pop, jazz, and funk. I really
enjoy the variety of sounds exhibited, mixing things up and
not getting stuck in any one musical rut.
“Disappear” opens the LP with some strong post-punk
power, including awesome angular guitar jabs that make it
a favorite. The layering of found sounds and electronics
toward the end give it an interesting texture. I like the
power pop of “Trouble,” and the Beatles-like
line in parts of it. “Elijah” mixes surf and
western sounds in a cool way “Sixteen Angels”
is an awesome jazz-inspired track. I love the smooth guitars
and the soaring saxophone. The song has that feel of a smoky
club, late night, and cheap whiskey. The track slowly builds
in intensity, getting louder and more emphatic, and around
the midpoint there’s a dueling saxophone solo, and
the guitar joins in with some deep psych licks. The whole
thing gets pretty chaotic and free jazz-fusion, and it’s
glorious. “La Divorce” has just the sort of
L.A. R&B sound you would think it should, sounding like
something from a movie soundtrack. I love the bright folk
of “Day After Day,” something made possible
by the mandolin and acoustic guitars, and toward the end
of the song the tenor sax reminds me of Saturday Night Live’s
band with a nice bluesy riff. The closing track, “The
Faraway,” is epic. It starts out as a quiet folk tune
on banjo, goes through an acid trip phase, with weird found
sounds, tape looks, reverb and twisted psychedelic melody.
The last thirty seconds get big and profound sounding for
a huge finish. Love it.
I’m not sure if Thelonious Monster has always had
this wonderful variety, but this record sure is fascinating
to listen to. It’s a journey through different magical
lands, in a sense. I may check out some of the earlier releases
now.
 ISAAC
ROTHER AND THE PHANTOMS – "Witches Brew"
(www.isaacrother.com)
Blending together R&B, surf, and horror-garage genres
of rock and roll, Isaac Rother and the Phantoms have a spooky
new single just in time for the Halloween season. With vocals
influenced by Screaming Jay Hawkins, Rother sings of the titular
potion, how to make it, and what it’s good for –
of course to cure what ails you. The guitar is loaded with
reverb, bass and drums pulled back in the mix, with sultry
backing vocals, providing an eerie sound. Put this on repeat
to scare away the trick or treating kids trying to spread
their virus to you!
 ARRICA
ROSE & THE …’S – Once in a Lullaby
(pOprOck records, www.arricarose.com)
I last reviewed music from Arrica Rose a couple of years ago,
and most of that record was OK, but forgettable. Except for
the last song of the LP, which was a quiet, dreamy mash-up
of “Video Killed The Radio Star” and “What
a Wonderful World” that floored me. Thankfully, this
new single is in a similar vein. Acoustic and electric guitars,
piano, and ethereal electronics blend with Rose’s breathy
vocals to create a dreamlike mash-up of “Somewhere Over
the Rainbow” and the protest songs “For What It’s
Worth” by Buffalo Springfield and “Ohio,”
the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song about the Kent State
massacre by the Ohio National Guard. The result is a hazy
introspective track that examines the ills plaguing our nation
and imagining a time or place where the strife and hatred
are gone. It’s a timely song, and executed beautifully.
The song choices for this mash-up were perfect, with lyrics
from “Ohio” pointing the finger at the use of
police and federal troops to quell protests against police
brutality and murder this year (So we gotta get down to it
/ Soldiers are cutting us down / Should have been done long
ago / What if you knew her / And found her dead on the ground
/ How can you run when you know). Arrica Rose & the …’s
are apparently working on a new EP due early next year, and
I hope those songs follow this trend. Simply beautiful.
 BIKE
THIEFS – Leaking (Stomp Records, www.stomprecords.com)
This punk rock trio from Toronto who don’t know how
to spell the plural of “thief” present their debut
full-length LP. It gives me a lot of interesting B-52’s
vibes, Talking Heads too, and especially the obscure Washington,
D.C. 80s art punk band 9353. With just guitar, bass, and drums
(Marko Woloshyn, Kris Pandierada, and Andrew Fasken, respectively),
the sound is a little thin in places, but the band do extremely
well with what they’ve got. A lot of the tracks have
interesting angular stop-start instrumentals with hints of
new wave mixed with the punk. Woloshyn’s vocals are
spoken or shouted (really spoken loudly more than shouted)
rather than sung. The lyrics are often repeated and contain
wry humor. There’s a song called “Connie’s
Got a New Phone,” for example. It opens with some guitar
dissonance, then smooths out, with lovely guitar harmonics
on the chorus. The lyrics are emphatically spoken, with lines
like “No functioning adult should own a pet lizard”
and other non-sequiturs. I love “You’re Allowed
Your Feelings;” it’s got a great driving bass
line and a drum beat that’ll get you moving. Lyrics
at times sound like a lecture, sometimes like a huckster salesman,
and other times are sung. The instrumentals alternate between
sparse punctuation and lush sounds. The stabs from the guitar
will pierce your heart and soul. “Financial Cancer”
is a chaotic noisy punk track with show tune aspirations,
so grandiose it is. “Flyover State” is an outlier,
with a dreamy sound and lyrics that are sung. As the song
evolves, the instrumentals get bigger and Woloshyn’s
vocals get more intense to the point of actual shouting. The
result is a fairly emotional song, much more so than the rest
of the LP. “Ideas Guy” is another of the more
melodic songs, with a leisurely pace and relaxed singing –
for the most part; at times the heat gets cranked up nicely,
and the use of guitar dissonance is quite effective at developing
tension in an otherwise placid track. With their fresh unique
sound, Bike Thiefs may not have stolen my bike, but they’ve
stolen my heart. <insert rim shot here>
 HiGH
– Out My Scope (Strange Daisy Records, www.strangedaisyrecords.com
/ Ashtray Monument, ashtraymonumentcol.wixsite.com/mysite)
NOLA’s HiGH – that could be a complete sentence
right there – are back with their third full-length
LP, the first since 2017’s “Evil Gene,”
which made its way onto my year-end “best of”
list. So “Out My Scope” has a lot to live up to.
This new LP is certainly more varied than the last one, spanning
more genres and sounds. On this outing the band veers somewhat
away from the power pop and punk influenced songs and more
toward indie rock and indie pop. There’s more variety
in tempo and texture of these songs, too. And longtime readers
of my Jersey Beat reviews column will know that I love variety.
“Oldest Things” opens the LP, and is one of the
songs that still do have a punk edge to it, but it’s
got cool touches like the guitar solos that sound like they
have a sense of humor. “Coupon Neptune” is the
most pop punk/street punk track of the LP, and it’s
a real blast.
Now to that variety. The songs seem to alternate between
faster, harder rocking tracks and slower, quieter ones.
I really love “Smartest Things,” a quieter indie
track that reminds me of some of the best of 90s indie.
“Ten At Zero” is also a slower track, this one
reminding me of grunge, but not quite as heavy and thickly
arranged. “Bon’s Breath” is an awesome
bass-driven track with simple yet cool angular lines in
minimalist repetition. “Milkweed” is some lovely
indie pop, another ballad-ish track with a quiet intensity.
And “Overdrawn” has an amazing jazzy edge to
its rock. The closing track, “Crooked,” has
a nice poppy bounce to it, and a gorgeous smoothness. And
that smoothness is something most of these tracks have in
common – they’re smoother and more relaxed than
those on “Evil Gene.” They exude more confidence,
in that respect. Is “Out Of My Scope” a “better”
album than “Evil Gene?” They’re different,
and they’re both really good. This is recommended.
 KNEELING
IN PISS – Music For Peasants (Anyway Records, www.anyway-records.com)
With a name like Kneeling In Piss, you would have certain
expectations for what the band would sound like. And you would
be very, very wrong. They’re not punk or grindcore;
they’re jangly indie pop! Last year, the band had released
“Tour De Force,” their debut full-length. And
just before the pandemic lockdown, they released a single
and announced a four-song EP, both of which were to be harbingers
of another LP to be released later in the year. Well, here
we are, and the LP has not come to fruition, perhaps another
victim of COVID-19. But we do get another four-song EP, so
that’s something. Fronted by Alex Mussawir (formerly
of Future Nuns), the Columbus, Ohio quartet (guitar, bass,
drums, and keyboards) play light indie pop songs that are
a reflections of the banality of everyday weirdoes. On the
synth-heavy “Music For Peasants,” which opens
the EP, the song seems to be about how people (peasants) seem
to be isolated, alienated and alone, and we do things to feel
less alone. I like “Pervert Today,” which has
a driving booming bass and thick dark guitars with a clean,
clear sound. Vocals are delivered in a deadpan style, even
as the music gets very emphatic. I think the song may be about
the incompleteness of people, as one verse references “Sophisticated
but cheap / A piano with no keys / A gun with no trigger /
A gun with no trigger.” But we don’t realize it,
as another verse says, “I feel right when I’m
wrong.” “Sofia Coppola” is another synth-fueled
track, with drum machine and keyboards driving the song about
wanting to leave Ohio after the recession is over, to work
in movies with the actress, as if it’s the most normal
thing in the world. The closer is an ode to the odd, in “I
Love the Avant Garde,” Piano and twangy guitar plunk
out a toy-like melody. Yep, Kneeling In Piss was quite a surprise
– a good surprise.
 MYLITTLEBROTHER
– Howl (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
Recorded in 2019, before anyone had heard of the coronavirus,
Cumbrian band mylittlebrother has finally released their sophomore
LP. Located in the far northwest of England, just at the border
with Scotland, Cumbria is mostly made up of the Lake District
National Park, lots of little villages, and the County Town
of Carlisle. It seems an unlikely place for an indie-pop band
to spring forth, but then, the small towns in the north of
England have produced several excellent bands. mylittlebrother
trend toward the lighter side of the musical spectrum, playing
songs that have tinges of psych and folk rock. The songs glide
smoothly and there are few rough edges, musically; it’s
all light and airy. Lyrically, the songs get a bit darker
than the melodies might imply. “It was largely written
during a pretty rough period for me, and it reflects that”
says vocalist and primary songwriter Will Harris. “’Howl’
takes you through hope, joy, anger, fear, loss, and ultimately,
back to hope again, but all with catchy tunes.” Harris’
vocals remind me of the neo-pagan folk that was coming out
of England in the 1970s, for some reason. They have an informal
but intentioned sound, and Harris’ northern accent is
clearly intact. Songs like the opener, “Play Hard,”
have a definite retro 70s psychedelic folk-rock bent and a
pleasantly casual tone. Even stronger in that retro 70s sound
is “Janey,” one of the album’s lead singles.
The other lead single, the album’s title track, “Howl,”
blends a bit of bubblegum ballad and Beatles-esque pop into
a song of pining for lost love. “ After the first verses
explain everything that was wrong with the relationship, a
subsequent verse declares, “But if you wanted, I could
fall for you again / Just Howl.” The song that really
grabbed my attention, though, was “Chicago.” Of
course, since that’s where I’m originally from.
Its melody cries it for it to be played louder, grittier,
and heavier than it is here, at least portions of the song.
It’s like a suite in three movements, with the first
movement being wannabe metal that should be played with an
early Black Sabbath ferocity, the second a gorgeous chorale,
and the third is some rock and fucking roll. “Time of
Our Lives” reminds me of a more modern version of a
Burt Bacharach song with an indie flavor. So bottom line,
is this a good record? Well, it isn’t a bad record.
I do wish there was more intensity to some of the tracks,
though.
 POPULATION
II – À La Ô Terre (Castle Face Records,
www.castlefacerecords.com)
Psychedelic jams fill the ten tracks on this new LP from Montreal’s
Population II. The trio give us 45 minutes of mostly instrumental
music, punctuated with occasional lyrics in French, but added
more as another instrument than actual “songs.”
Hypnotic and mesmerizing, some of the tracks are long-form
jams while others are short fragments or introductions. Take
the spacey trance jams of bands like Amon Duul II or Can,
make them harder edged with garage rock sensibilities, and
you’ve got an idea of what Population II sounds like
on this, their debut LP. “Introspection” opens
the LP with a cacophonous scream of instruments, then resolves
to a bluesy jam, and evolves into a buzzy, searing guitar
fueled rockfest with interjections from a jazzy saxophone.
The mysterious sounding “Les Vents” starts smoothly,
with beautiful harp creating a very science-fiction-like atmosphere,
with the bass walking through the stars, the organ shining
brightly. Like other tracks, it evolves, the organ giving
way to electric guitar, but not giving up any of the mystery.
Halfway through, the guitar takes complete control, plunging
into the closest star, the hellish flames burning everything
around. Suddenly, the fire is out and we’re again in
the coldness of space, near silence broken only by the return
of the organ. “Il eut un Silence dans le Ciel”
is a frantic caterwauling at the start, that gets a little
funky, while “Attraction” is a sultry slow burner.
Yes, these tracks are jams, yes, this is “out there,”
but it’s damn cool and unlike many jams, it morphs with
much variety. If you live in a state where weed is legal,
I’m guessing this will be even better under the influence.
 RALPHIE’S
RED RYDERS – You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out (Radiant
Radish Records, radiantradish.storenvy.com)
In one of the most anticipated reunions in a long time, Ralphie,
Schwartz, and Flick entered Carbine Action Studios in downtown
Hohman, Indiana this past summer to lay down the dozen tracks
contained in this first release from the Red Ryders in many
years. And it comes just as the holiday season starts to crank
up, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Guest appearances
at this session include Mike, Mark, Reese, Christopher, Donna,
Beth, Manny, Randy, Grover, and Scut. Of course, if you’re
paying attention, nearly none of the above is true. Mike Patton
and friends are giving us another wonderful themed record,
just as they do with their Vista Blue records. But this time,
we don’t only get a season or holiday to celebrate,
we get one of the most beloved holiday movies, based on the
stories of American national treasure, the late Jean Shepherd.
If you’re familiar with the sounds of Vista Blue (and
you should be, really), you’ll know what to expect here:
buzzy guitars, bright gleaming keyboards, and harmonized vocals,
all done in a Ramonescore meets Beach Boys style. And if you’re
familiar with the movie (or better yet, the stories upon which
it’s based) you’ll recognize the vignettes that
inspired each of these songs. “My Decoder Ring”
of course refers to the time Ralphie mailed away to get Little
Orphan Annie’s decoder ring and his dismay when he decoded
his first secret message. “I Can’t Put My Arms
Down” recalls the time Ralphie’s mom got little
brother Randy ready to walk to school in the Indiana winter,
with so many layers and so much bulk that he literally couldn’t
put his arms down. Who can forget the “Bumpus Hounds”
that ruined Christmas dinner? There’s a promotional
spot for Higbee’s, the department store in Hohman where
Ralphie and Randy have a momentous encounter with Santa Claus
and his elves. There’s even a song about the anticipation
of getting an A+ on one’s assigned homework, the theme
about the perfect Christmas gift. The closing track, “Electric
Sex,” recalls what’s arguably the most famous
scene in the film, the major award won by Ralphie’s
old man and displayed proudly in the front window, at least
temporarily, to mom’s dismay. The doo-wop captures the
confusing longings Ralphie felt as he eyed the Nehi leg lamp.
If you’re a fan of Vista Blue, Ramonescore, or A Christmas
Story, this is something you gotta hear.
 LOVE
EQUALS DEATH / THE STATIC AGE – Split EP (Say-10 Records,
www.say-10.com)
Say-10, purveyor of records and skateboards, is releasing
one of the oddest pairings I’ve ever heard on a split
EP. The two tracks from “Love Equals Death”
are big, muscular punk rock with loads of whoa-ohs and lots
of skate punk energy. The two songs from The Static Age
are synth and guitar driven, with a more expansive pop sound,
including dark vocals and bright electronics. Taken separately
both a good on their own merits. But back-to-back listening
to both is jarring.
 KURT
BAKER – After Party (Wicked Cool Records, www.wickedcoolrecords.com)
Ex-pat Kurt Baker is one of the bright lights keeping the
flames of power pop lit. The former Leftovers member has been
living in Spain, and the records he puts out there with the
Kurt Baker Combo have tended to lie a little more toward the
pop punk end of the spectrum. But with this, his US-based
band, it’s unabashed power pop, and I hear Elvis Costello
and Beatles influences in some of the dozen new songs here.
These are sparkling and poppy, with tons of hooks. I really
love “New Direction,” the song that opens the
LP. It’s a mid-tempo loper, and Baker sounds so much
like Elvis Costello here it’s eerie. The song is about
the realization that, after a breakup, life goes on and can
be even better. The chorus has big vocals and the song has
a bright sound, like the new outlook on life reflected in
the lyrics. “I Like Her A Lot” is another great
one, with a fast moving melodic line, lyrics filling every
space, and “Waiting For You” has bits of mid period
Beatles sounds. The harmonies are spot on and the piano playing
the melody is pretty. “Good” is an interesting
track, with a reggae feel, crossed with power pop, and lots
of Elvis Costello mixed in. “She Don’t Really
Love You, Dude” is one of the edgier tracks on the album,
with rough and ready guitar tone and a driving beat. The keyboard
solo is simple, but works, especially as the baton as handed
off to the guitars. And the spoken word in the middle of the
track, after the bridge is hilarious: “Hey man, I hate
to break it to you, but the fact is, she doesn’t love
anybody.” The tongue in cheek bossa nova lounge song,
“A Song and a Drink” is nice, too, but more fluff
than substance. “Over You” sounds like it could
have been written and recorded in the 1980s, and it could
have come from the Journey song catalog. The harmonized vocals
on the chorus, the melodic line, it’s all there. And
“Keep Dreaming” is a lighter song, the chimes
giving it a little bit of a holiday feel. These two are the
songs I didn’t like quite as much as the others, sounding
more commercial and AM pop radio oriented. But this is another
solid effort from Baker, and another reason power pop is still
a vital genre.
 THE
LINE – Sour to Punker (ImageArt Records, thelinemusic.bandcamp.com/album/sour-to-punker)
Originally formed back in the 1990s, The Line hail from Orange
County, California. And yes, the four-piece are true to their
roots, with a strong Orange County 1990s punk sound, though
they lean more to the metallic/progressive rock end of the
OC punk spectrum than the skate punk end. The songs are mid
tempo, with big guitars and dark melodies. Five of the six
tracks on this EP were recorded late last year, but one song,
“Harmony Do You Miss We,” was written and recorded
during the pandemic, the “we” meant to be a reference
to the scene unity we’re all missing without shows,
hugs, and high fives. That song has a sad yet hopeful sound.
“Strange Modesty II” may be the most “punk”
sounding track of the bunch, a little poppier and with a faster,
brighter feel, while “Modem 2K” is the most outright
metal song on the EP. Overall, the songs really don’t
do much for me. Modern OC punk isn’t one of my favorite
genres, and the gang vocals on these tracks could use a little
work – they sound a bit out of tune and a little unenthused.
 SKELETON
ARMY – GovernMental Disorder (skeletonarmypunk.bandcamp.com)
Skeleton Army is a four piece DIY punk band from the Phoenix,
Arizona area, and this is their debut full-length LP. They
call themselves “good old punk rock,” and that’s
an accurate description. The Southern California/OC old school
punk sound is strong with these guys, with speedy songs, simple
melodies, and crunchy guitars. The lyrics, too, reflect a
mix of the early Orange County punk tradition, ranging from
political topics to funny punk. Back before “skate punk”
became a different sound in the 1990s and 2000s, it was hardcore
made by bands like JFA (also from Arizona), Code of Honor,
and others, and Skeleton Army exhibits a lot of that sound.
“Fuck the DEA” is probably one of my favorite
tracks of the album, blending political and party lyrics with
bouncy fun punk rock that reminds me of Chicago’s Slammin’
Watusis. Some of the songs express an old school punk attitude,
such as “Go Uck Yourself” (that’s not a
typo, thought the lyrics do include the “F”),
the chorus of which has the simple lyrics, “Why don’t
you just go fuck yourself” repeated. The music is dark,
speedy, and hard as nails. And “Motherfucker”
is a slower one with a bounce, lots of whoa ohs. The chorus
of “You motherfucker” repeated multiple times
is sung pretty casually, without bile. Familial dissension
is on display in “Ultimate Disappointment,” in
which we hear “I’m not sorry, mom / That I don’t
believe in your god / I hope you can forgive me / For losing
my religion.” This one’s slower and sludgier.
As a burrito fan, another favorite is “Killibertos,”
a punk rock ode to the corner taco shops all over the southwest
(but the best ones are in San Diego). The song is dark, loud,
and angry, as it sings about the foods that will “give
me a fuckin’ heart attack.” And “Eat Your
Vegetables” reminds me of the old satirical straight-edge
band, Crucial Youth, who sang songs about practicing good
dental hygiene, among others. Skeleton Army isn’t blazing
any new trails, of course, but they’re just like your
dependable local punk band that you can see open the show
when an old 80s punk band comes touring through.
 PROFESOR
GALACTICO/THE PARANOIAS - Nightmare / Hope To See You Next
Year Split EP (My Grito, mygrito.limitedrun.com)
My Grito is a new imprint of Wiretap Records, the LA label
that has made a big splash in its mere five years of existence.
Co-founded by Wiretap boss Rob Castellon and longtime friend
Oscar Toledo, My Grito’s mission is to support Latin/Latinx
artists in various mediums, including music, visual arts,
comedy, and more. One of their early releases is this split
EP from Profesor Galactico and The Paranoias. The “A
side” includes five songs from Profesor Galactico, a
self-taught musician who blends ska, punk, alternative, and
hip hop styles into a unique fusion. His songs range from
melodic and bouncy to dark and edgy. I really like “Alien,”
his opening song. It uses a Theremin to create an eerie otherworldly
effect, and the song alternates between skankin’ and
hard-edged post-hardcore mixed with hip-hop. I’m not
the biggest ska fan, but the horns on “Move It Or Lose
It” are done really well. The track itself is kind of
jazzy post-hardcore in places and ska in others, and the harmonized
backing vocals are nice and smooth. The “B side”
contains four tracks from The Paranoias, self-styled as “your
ladies favorite band.” They’ve been playing around
the west coast for several years, with a mix of smooth ska
fusion, R&B, reggae, soul, jazz, and punk. I really like
the smooth mix of ska, Latin jazz and alternative pop in “Next
Year,” and “Global Warming” is a hard-hitting
song blending metallic rock with surf and horror. Their closing
track, “Papeles,” (“Papers”) starts
as a pretty acoustic power-pop song that sound like something
that could have come from The Beatles. Halfway through it
changes into a more modern bouncy indie pop song that recapitulates
“Next Year,” but with a very different feel. I’ve
always been impressed at the job Wiretap has done with curating
the artists on their label, so I’m looking forward to
what they do with My Grito. They’re off to a good start.
 THE
PURPLE WITCH OF CULVER – Eulogy for a Sunbeam (Loantaka
Records, www.loantaka-records.com)
Saxophonist Sarah Safaie and producer/ multi-instrumentalist
Evan Taylor are back with another new single to be released
on Taylor’s Loantaka Records imprint. As with their
previous single, “Trig,” which I reviewed a few
weeks back, the duo blend jazz, funk, hip-hop, chill-out EDM,
and spoken word beat poetry to create something cool and unique.
I think I like this new single even more than the previous
one. A tribal drumbeat lasts throughout, and the bulk of the
song has a sparkly 70s funk mixed with electronics and rock
and roll guitar. Safaie’s deadpan reading of the lyrics
comes across as stream of consciousness and I love the jazzy
horn punctuations that appear throughout the song. This is
great stuff.
 THE
FIRMLY CROOKED - Daren Gratton And The Firmly Crooked
(thefirmlycrooked.bandcamp.com)
Daren Gratton previously fronted the long gone St. Louis band
The Haddonfields. After that ended, he played solo for a time,
but in the last couple of years he’s been playing with
Grave Neighbors and The Firmly Crooked, the latter of which
is now releasing its debut full-length LP. The songs are,
for the most part, solid Midwestern melodic punk rock. The
Chicago influence of bands like Pegboy and Naked Raygun is
evident, with muscular guitars and a strong melody, but the
melodic lines in some of the songs are more modern sounding
pop punk. The opening track, “Until You’re Gone,”
could have come from Pegboy ca. 1990. There’s loads
of power and a slightly dark sounding melody. Gratton belts
out the lyrics with an emphatic intensity. And while “Laughing
Prophet of Doom” starts out slower and more quietly,
it gets bigger and stronger at the halfway mark. “All
I Can Remember” has a thick Midwest melodic punk sound,
too, mixed with more of a modern pop punk feel. As the album
evolves, the punk sound does, too, “Northface”
and subsequent songs have a more modern pop feel mixed in
with the punk.
There are other sounds on this LP, making it sometimes
sound disjoined. “Laughing Prophet of Doom”
has hints of Americana tinges to its punk rock. “Always
Say Never” is a chill pop punk tune with buzzy guitars,
reminding me a bit of Vista Blue. “She’s Groundhog’s
Day” has an indie dreaminess to it, with open guitar
sounds and bits of jangle underneath.
The least successful song of the album is the solo acoustic
“Star Fall Down.” The guitar sounds unfortunately
out of tune and Gratton’s vocals sound lethargic and
raspy. Likewise, the full-band “So Many Miles”
feels thin and tired, needing a boost of energy to get going.
The closing track is the most surprising and most fun.
“You Were Never Here” is a pop punk song, played
on acoustic guitar, but there are drums here, too. The guitar
is played in an almost flamenco style, rapid strumming burning
up the speakers. It’s the most different from the
rest of the tracks, and is an unexpected burst of brightness.
My favorites, other than that final song, are mostly in
the first half of the album, those broad shouldered songs
with the more powerful punk sound. Half of the album is
solid and strong, but the other half is inconsistent, with
a couple of tracks falling short.
 HIROKI
TANAKA – Kaigo Kioku Kyoku (hirokikyoku.bandcamp.com)
Before I go into detail, just know that this debut solo LP
from Hiroki Tanaka is jaw dropping. It’s beautiful and
it’s touching. The album’s title translates to
“Caregiving Memory Songs,” and the eight amazing
tracks document Tanaka’s experience as a caregiver to
his grandmother, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease,
and his uncle with terminal cancer. The music includes sounds
made by meaningful objects, voice recordings of his relatives,
and has the structure of hymns and Japanese folk songs. Tanaka
has been making music in the Toronto area since his teenage
years, and after his experiences caring for his relatives
in the same house in which he grew up, he felt compelled to
strike out on his own and create these songs as sort of a
sonic archive, preserving his own memories and those of his
relatives. An interesting touch on the album is that many
of the percussion sounds on the record were made by recording
objects in the house, including everything from the sound
of a cupboard closing to the clinking together of two glasses.
The album opens with “Bare Hallways,” which
includes recordings of his grandmother singing something,
and then the music begins. It’s delicate, with acoustic
guitar, steel guitar, piano, percussion, and some synths.
The song is quiet, wispy, and dreamlike, speaking about
seeing his grandmother living in her past memories. “Eternal
Host” features synths up front, and after an eerie
opening, it continues with distorted guitars playing what
sounds like a hymn, and falsetto vocals speaking directly
to the disorientation of illness. The music resolves into
something jazzy and sparkly, bluesy vocals singing about
the feelings Tanaka experienced as a caregiver. “Exile
from home eternal host / Can’t leave you alone eternal
host / Bathe and feed each day eternal host / Dazzle you
with shame eternal host / I can’t go on I must go
on I’m rolling stones.” The pain is clear in
Tanaka’s voice, torn between love for his family and
his desire to live his own life.
“Inori Intro” is an astounding short track,
mixing field recordings of a traditional Japanese gong with
a beautiful vocal choir singing an excerpt from the hymn
"Inori" by Genzo Miwa. Just close your eyes when
you listen to this one, feel the hairs stand up on the back
of your neck, and be transported to another place. Then
listen to the pretty waltz, “Inori,” a song
in which Tanaka explains the torn feelings, but this time
afraid that if he lets people know his grandmother is reaching
the end of her life they’ll take her away from him,
“And you’ll forget, you’ll forget me too.”
As the music swirls, electric guitar playing and an electrified
violin playing a distorted soaring melody, it’s hard
not to shed a tear.
“Snowdrop” opens with vocal ambience and a
spine-chilling rendition of the Japanese folk song, “Sakura,”
punctuated with various sounds, including a cuckoo clock.
The bulk of this lengthy track, though, gorgeous ambient
music played beneath a recorded conversation someone had
with Tanaka’s grandmother, asking her questions about
where she grew up, her favorite holiday, and her garden.
The snowdrops of the title are the small flowers in the
garden, flowers that push their way up through the frozen
earth early in the spring. The next track opens with a recording
of a Japanese choir woman from the eldercare facility Tanaka’s
grandmother stayed in. The song the choir is singing is
“Aoi Me No Ningyo,” which translates to “Blue
Eyed Doll,” the title of this track. The song seems
to be a catharsis, his feelings upon the death of his grandmother,
Some of the lyrics reference her coming to North America
as a child: “Frightened like a child that sailed to
a foreign shore,” and he thanks her for helping him
grow as a man, singing, “You gave me the courage to
care, and to show / I want to thank you for this blue eyed
doll.”
Following this is a short, lovely interlude performed on
harp, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” performed
by Jacqueline Goring. It’s an ancient liturgical chant,
likely dating back to around AD 275, but was collected in
the Divine Liturgy of St. James. Performed on the harp it
sounds less like liturgical music and more like an ancient
folk song. And the ending track is ”Utopia,”
a sad song of remembrance when the end has come. The soaring
trumpet echoes a life gloriously lived, as Tanaka sings
the closing lines, “Thinking there has been no better
time / It’s time / It’s time / It’s time
/ It’s time / It’s time.”
This is a very emotional record, very personal, very devastating,
and very beautiful.
 DARREN
JESSEE – Remover (Bar/None Records, www.bar-none.com)
Easy listening music for the indie generation? Ben Folds Five
alum Darren Jessee presents his sophomore LP, following up
2018’s “The Jane, Room 217,” with ten songs
of soft, easy, quiet songs. Acoustic guitar and violin choir
synthesizer feature prominently in the arrangements, occasionally
punctuated by French horns (or more synths) yielding the same
aesthetic for today’s graduates from the indie scene
to adulthood that our parents and grandparents had from 1001
Strings and Percy Faith. The arrangements range from sparse
to full and lush, but the tempos are uniformly relaxed and
lazy. Some of the songs might be reasonably successful as
singer-songwriter material, but the arrangements and production
here give them a sound that’s too close to the modern
equivalent of what we used to call “elevator music”
or “Muzak.” There’s a feeling of ennui that
runs through all these tracks, the vocals sung at such an
even keel, seemingly bereft of any emotion. Put this on when
you’re having trouble falling asleep.
 ANGORA
DEBS (Secret Center Records, www.facebook.com/secretcenterrecords)
Angora Debs’ bio calls them “Oakland’s answer
to Pete Shelley and Dan Treacy, attempting to write pop songs
and smile between meltdowns.” And that’s probably
pretty spot-on for this group that play songs that teeter
on the edge of punk and power pop. With members located an
hour and a half apart in Oakland and Sacramento, California,
practicing may be tricky, but hell, the performances on this
five song EP show they’re doing just fine. With lo-fi
production giving it a garage edge, tons of hooks and loads
of jangle, this is brilliant music in the vein of The Buzzcocks.
Songs like “B-side” and “Camel Lights”
have a mid-tempo lope and a good time rock and roll feel.
I really love the manic “Cross Your Fingers,”
with a speedier, crazier sound, more punk and more garage,
but no less melodic and poppy. Even better is “Photograph,”
another banger that reminds me of Radioactivity blended with
The Bananas, not surprising since one of the Angora Debs is
also in The Bananas. The closing track, “Your Shitty
Diary,” is a great pop punk sing-along, and I can imagine
being in a little club or DIY space with a bunch of friends,
all jumping around and singing this with big smiles on our
faces. Angora Debs may be best known as the club that Laverne
and Shirley belonged to in the sit-com, but from now on, I’ll
know it as a band I want to listen to more and more.
 ANTAGONIZERS
ATL – Black Clouds (Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
The ATL in their name refers to their hometown of Atlanta,
yet Antagonizers ATL harken back more to the days of British
working class Oi than any music that ever came out of the
southern USA. Big sing along punk is the order of the day
on this new single, and it’s got a classic sound.
Put this on and you’ll feel just like you’re
in a pub in 1984 London. The band is tight and play with
equal measures of fun and anger, resulting in a great listen.
 DFMK
(La Escalera Records, www.laescaleradistro.com)
The long awaited, oft delayed debut full length LP from Tijuana’s
DFMK has finally arrived! Produced by Tyson “Chicken”
AnniCharico, better known as the bassist and vocalist of Dead
To Me, DFMK’s LP finally came into being with the cooperation
of many labels, including La Escalera Records (which is handling
distribution), A-F Records, Rad Girlfriend Records, Tiny Dragon
Music, Puercords, and Constructivismo Distro. If you’ve
been living under a rock, DFMK is simply one of the most dynamic
rock and roll bands making music today. Taking cues from punk
rock and hardcore, from proto punks like The Stooges and MC5,
from garage punk and even The Ramones, DFMK sing songs in
Spanish about living life on the edge and in the margins,
about nihilism and drug abuse, about hangovers from long nights
in shitty dive bars, about broken hearts and good times. Their
past EPs were good, but Chicken’s production on this
LP has really done the band justice, because it sounds great,
and it does an amazing job of capturing the sound and the
feeling of the band on vinyl. This is no bullshit, take no
prisoners, balls out guerilla rock and roll. Cap’s vocals
are shouted and sung with attitude rivaling that of Mick Jagger
and with more enthusiasm and élan than the Rolling
Stone could ever muster. Songs rang from the powerful and
speedy punk fueled songs like “Mal Presentimiento”
and “Miedo y Aversion,” to the more mid-tempo
good-time rockers like “Donde Apunta la Aguja”
and “Year of the Snake,” which closes the LP on
an old school metallic note.
That opening track, “Mal Presentimiento,” or
“Bad Feeling,” speaks to the nihilism of just
living for the moment. “I’ve got a bad feeling,
I don’t trust the future, I bet it all for today,”
is the refrain in the chorus, and one of the verses includes,
“I don’t have any reasons, I only do it for
fun / I still have my life, death hasn’t taken it
away / I play with my life, ‘cause there is nothing
better to do / I play with my life, ‘cause there is
nothing to lose.” I mean, how punk is that? Echoes
on a theme from Minor Threat are in the song, “Fuera
de Lugar,” which means “Out of Step.”
The short one minute blast of a song celebrates not being
normal, and even references the image on the cover of Minor
Threat’s famous record with the line, “I am
a black sheep on the outskirts of society / Out of step,
It’s where I want to be.”
“Ya No Quiero Ser Punk” is a rager that translates
to “I Don’t Wanna Be Punk Anymore,” and
it points a damning finger at the punk scene today, driven
more by a desire to conform than to be an individual. “I
don’t care about today’s fashion trends / Because
I am busy being me / I don’t want to be “punk”
anymore,” Cap sings, and the last line of the song,
“I want to be me, I don’t care about you, I
just want to be PUNK.” Make punk gritty and individualistic
again! It’s not all doom and gloom with DFMK. They
celebrate their hometown of Tijuana with the rocker, “Ciudad
de Nadie” (City of No one). It sings the praises of
the all night parties, up ‘til dawn, drinking “caguamas”
(40 oz beers) and snorting a little blow. And “Frida
no es Sofia” (Frida isn’t Sofia) isn’t
about a misidentified woman, it’s an attack on “fake
news,” the propaganda that spews from the government
and the media.
If you’ve never had the chance to see a live DFMK
show, you damn well better hope this pandemic goes away
soon and they get back to touring, because it’s something
not to be missed. If they harnessed the energy emitted by
DFMK they could eliminate fossil fuels and solve the climate
crisis overnight.
 JACO
– DOSE (Cornelius Chapel Records, www.corneliuschapelrecords.com)
Jake Waltzman, recording under the Jaco moniker, is collaborating
with Cornelius Chapel Records on a trilogy of releases, and
this represents the second installment. Though he’s
primarily a drummer, Waltzman is a multi-instrumentalist,
and steps out of his role in other local bands to front his
solo effort, working with friend and band mate Lester Nuby
III to forge this forty-some minutes of pop music. Guitar,
bass, drums, and keyboards blend together to create smooth,
easy pop-rock songs worthy of your local adult contemporary
radio station. These are not charged with power, and aren’t
going to get you jumping around the room. Instead, these are
the sorts of songs to have on in the background when you have
your grown-up former indie-kid friends over for a wine and
cheese party. Especially the opener, “Bluebird,”
which has a loungy, jazzy feel, courtesy of the vibraphone
and breezy island beat. “Faberge” and “In
the Sea” have pretentions of being power pop tracks,
but lack the power to pull it off, and instead are just even
keeled pop tunes with nice jangly guitars and smooth synths.
Some of the songs have tinges of mild psychedelic influence,
like “Outer Space,” with the synths tuned to sound
like an organ, so it sounds like a 70s jam. These songs are
just too lethargic for my tastes, and really never get me
going.
 LENNY
LASHLEY’S GANG OF ONE – Lenny Lashley’s
Gang of One Live (Pirate’s Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
Not terribly long ago I reviewed a full band album from Lenny,
and noted that he was New England’s answer to Bruce
Springsteen, playing strong working class rock and roll. Now
here he is, as the “gang of one,” performing solo
acoustic, live. The ten songs here were recorded in front
of a real audience (remember them?) pre-pandemic, at the Button
Factory Stage in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. And I know some
people cringe at the thought of solo acoustic, especially
now, after six months of live streams of people sitting on
their couches playing acoustic guitar for us. But I’ve
long been a sucker for good singer-songwriter fare, and, if
anything, Lashley presents something I like even more than
his full band music. There’s a more intimate feel, more
heartfelt. Especially in songs like “Judy,” a
pleading for a straying love to come home. I don’t know
if it’s based on personal experience or not, but it
feels like it could be. “Lonesome” drips with
devastating sadness and regret. And “Hooligans”
is a fun reminiscence of youthful energy and hijinks in the
old days of the Boston punk scene. It uses the famous international
“olé olé olé” soccer chant
to open and close the song (soccer hooligans!), and has lyrics
that reference famous Boston venues like the long gone Rat
and references hanging out in Central Square (in Cambridge),
a punk hangout where The Middle East music venue is. Beyond
those references, it’s just about hanging out with your
friends and getting into trouble, having the best time of
your life. I really love the ballad “Two Robbers,”
a song that tells the story of traveling on the road and being
accosted by two robbers. It has the feeling of an old song
out of the mists of time, perhaps from the Highlands of Scotland.
The song’s protagonist defends himself, but the feelings
of guilt over having killed someone are there. I do like solo
acoustic, and I like this record.
 LESLIE
PEREIRA & THE LAZY HEROES – Good Karma (Big Stir
Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
After last year’s debut LP, Leslie Pereira and the Lazy
Heroes return with their sophomore effort. The dozen songs
on offer range from melodic indie rock to bouncy pop, some
songs with a near punk edge, others smoother and more relaxed.
The album opens with the title track, and it has a great retro
sound, feeling like those guitar fueled songs on the edge
between punk and power pop that populated the left end of
the radio dial in the early days of the new wave. These kinds
of songs were a great antidote to the fizzy synth pop that
was found everywhere else on the radio. I like the jangle
of “If I Could,” a song with a retro 60s pop sound
blended with 80s power pop. Another good one is the Latin-flavored
“Hot Tamale,” alternating between the smooth bouncy
verses and harder edgier chorus and bridge. The big vocals
and darker feel of “Slip” remind me of the great
band Heart. “Time To Rock” ranges from garage
rock to post punk; I especially like the angular guitar breaks
that come after the chorus that remind me a lot of some of
the post punk sounds of the 80s, and the guitar tone is spot
on. “So Hard” is another one with different feels
in different parts of the song. It’s got big grungy
parts, some sassy seductive parts, and some parts that just
rock out. One thing all the songs on this record have in common
is a sense of fun. You can tell that the band are having a
blast; there’s a sense of snarky sarcasm in the music,
loads of attitude, and lots of good times.
 SEIZED
UP – Brace Yourself (Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
There’s been a lot more angry music coming out the last
few years, and understandably so. The country and, indeed,
the world, have gotten a lot more fucked up, with the rise
of far-right fascism and corruption in government, police
brutality more out of control than ever, and now a global
pandemic. Enter Seized Up, a quartet of seasoned hardcore
veterans. Seized Up was formed in Santa Cruz, California in
early 2019 with Bl’ast singer Clifford Dinsmore, Fast
Asleep guitarist Danny B., Good Riddance bassist Chuck Platt
and The Distillers drummer Andy Granelli. And they are pissed
off as hell. The eleven tracks on this debut LP are a mix
of hardcore and post-hardcore, loud and bitter, angry and
dissonant. With songs like “Tent City Exodus,”
“Taking Back the Neighborhood,” and “Terminal
Disarray,” the band covers topics such as the rising
tide of homelessness, growing gentrification causing displacement
of entire communities, and the increasing lawlessness of our
corrupt politicians and business leaders. The anger is palpable,
the songs played loudly and at breakneck speed, chord changes
coming with acute angularity, guitars screaming, drums hammering
the point. This record is a call to action, a demand to end
complacency, and an entreaty to take to the streets and take
back what has been taken from us. As the album cover says,
“In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.”
Seized Up is sounding the clarion call. It’s time for
everyone to respond.
 THE
SLACKERS – Blue (Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
New York reggae and rock steady legends The Slackers, who
recently signed with Pirates Press to rerelease some of their
LPs, have been giving us a few new singles, as well. The latest
of these is “Blue,” a classic reggae song, complete
with a dub version on the B-side. All the hallmarks of reggae
are here, horns, a strong backbeat, and a hazy lazy tempo
and feel. The instrumentation feels thin to me, especially
compared to the excellent rock steady single they released
a few months back. The dub version seems to merely add more
reverb and a few tape loops, and doesn’t really change
the sound or feel much. I like reggae, but this single didn’t
do it for me.
 JON
SNODGRASS – Tace (A-F Records, www.a-frecords.com)
Jon Snodgrass should need no introduction, but in case you’re
new to music, Snodgrass is a founding member of Drag The River,
Scorpios, and Armchair Martian. He’s been doing a lot
of solo records as well as releasing records with various
friends, though, and “Tace” is but the latest.
Though this one is not credited as an “and Friends”
LP, there are several guest appearances of note, including
Stephen Eggerton and Karl Alvarez (Descendents, ALL), Zach
Blair (Rise Against, GWAR, The Drakulas) Neil Hennessy (The
Lawrence Arms, The Falcon), Joey Cape (Lagwagon, Bad Astronaut),
Stacey Dee (Bad Cop/Bad Cop), Mikey Erg (The Ergs, Worriers),
and more.
There are some great moments of levity on the LP, such
as the opening track, a short conversation about whether
someone needs to take a shower before going into the swimming
pool, and the closing title track, featuring some cheesy
organ and a bit of conversation from the studio. In between
there are plenty of punkish Americana songs and good ol’
rock and roll. I like “Bad New Lands,” a pretty
powerful, raucous song. It’s got a country rock flavor,
but it’s definitely a punk rock descendant. “Footage”
is even more strongly alt-country influenced, yet it also
reminds me of some mid-period Hüsker Dü songs,
and Snodgrass’ raspy vocals sometimes sound kind of
like Bob Mould’s. Even more overtly countrified is
“Don’t Break Her Heart,” from the twangy
sound to the subject matter. This one I can clearly hear
as a solo acoustic song, as well.
The album is loaded with contrasts, showing off Snodgrass’
wonderful range, both in writing and performing. For example,
“BoyzIIMen” is a lovely delicate track, with
acoustic guitar, piano, and vocals, but right after it is
“1-2-3-4,” a huge bluesy song with noisy buzzy
guitars. “The Sequal” is another raucous track
that has that slight Americana sound, but plenty of punk
power. And while I’m normally not one for guitar solos,
this song has one that’s simple and strong, and the
way it soars is beautiful.
The most heartwarming part of the record, though, has to
be the pair of tracks, “Indoor-Outdoor Type”
and “Go Baseball…,” the former being a
field recording of Snodgrass at a baseball game with one
of his kids, and the latter being Snodgrass talking to his
kid about a song the kid wrote, then he plays it. His kid
even interrupts and corrects him on the lyrics! This is
sure to bring a smile to your face and cause a bit of a
chuckle to scape your lips. And the whole record will be
something you’re sure to enjoy.
 THE
URETHRAS – Patronized (Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
The Urethras are a band of teenagers who were voted “most
likely to start a circle pit at a Bay Area punk rock show,”
according to their press bio. This is the debut single for
the California kids, and though the recording quality could
use some work, this is the pissed off hardcore I remember
from the early 80s. The music is super simple, fast and loud,
with angry lyrics shouted with lots of piss and vinegar. The
instrumentals sound like were recorded inside a glass jar
or something, but it can’t dilute the ire. That it’s
teenagers making this retro punk music is pretty unreal. This
is sure to get you moshing in da pit!
 ZERO
ZEROES (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
My first impression when I first started listening to this
was that I liked the dark menacing punk sound. “Mouth
Full of Snakes” is a punch-in-the-gut track with garage
undertones and a bleak sense of gloom looming. As I listened
further, though, I felt like I was listening to the same song
on repeat. Taken individually, each song is solid, vigorous,
muscular sounding punk with a sense of despair. When taken
as an album, there’s too little variation from track
to track. I kind of do have a favorite track, though, and
it’s “Face Up to the Mist.” Though the band
is from Germany and writing their music in 2020, this song
reminds me of 1980s Naked Raygun a bit in some ways, and it
adds in some surf guitar sounds. These touches make it stand
out from the rest of the album – which is great dark
punk, but the sort of songs that will be enjoyed when they
pop up in shuffle mode, rather than listened to straight through.
 ATTIC
SALT – Get Wise (Jump Start Records, www.jumpstartrecords.com)
Coming out of America’s heartland, Springfield, Illinois,
Attic Salt are back with their sophomore LP. The record contains
ten songs of great, melodic poppy music, right on the edge
between pop punk and indie pop. In comparison to 2017’s
self-titled debut, the sound here is somewhat cleaner and
more mature, but no less exciting. Guitarists Alyssa Currie
and Andy Harmon are still there, taking turns on lead vocals,
providing a welcome variety in sound texture. The melodies
are bouncy, the guitar sound jangly and big, creating a wall
of sound that surrounds you and hugs you. Favorite song is
“Mud,” which opens with acoustic guitar and Currie
singing depressing lyrics about being in a rut. “We
still hang out at the same bars / Still talking about weather
/ Driving in all our shit cars / Pray for something better
/ Sometimes you call it a night / So I close out and head
home / Sometimes we wake up together / It makes us feel more
alone.” I mean, how depressing is that? After the initial
verses, the full band comes in, Currie’s vocals still
sounding glum amidst the brightness of the instrumentals.
It’s one of the things pop punk does best: putting a
happy face on the shittiest of life experiences, and this
song is a prime example of how it’s done. I also really
like the opener, the incongruously titled, “Last Song.”
Currie’s vocals really shine here, and the tough guitars
manage to sound sweet and sparkly. And “Fool 4 U”
has a nice grunge feel mixed in with this song about longing
for a connection with someone else. The guitars play a simple
repeating line consisting of just a couple of chords, deep
and loud, while Currie sings about being alone and wanting
to take a chance on love, even knowing it might end up leaving
her heartbroken. Great stuff.
 CHRISTIAN
SINGLES – Maybe Another Time (Mt. St. Mtn., wwwmtstmtn.com)
Rob I. Miller, the Oakland-based musician who is known for
Mall Walk and Blues Lawyer, is releasing his debut solo LP
under the Christian Singles moniker. The songs were written
in the early days of the pandemic stay-at-home orders, but
the songs are not a reflection of that, or even of the mass
protests for racial justice and police reform that has held
the nation in its grips since the late spring. It was the
return of his father’s cancer that caused Miller to
take stock, dredging up unresolved issues and bringing a sense
of urgency to try to bring about a resolution, or at least
articulate them. The nine songs that resulted speak about
the difficult questions we all face when it comes to family
and forgiveness. The music makes generous use of acoustic
guitar and electronics, and many of the songs are attractively
moody. Some get noisy or dissonant. These sorts of songs are
my favorites on this record. Such is the case with the opening
track, “Bury.” Starting out quietly with just
acoustic guitar and vocals, drums, reverb, and glimmering
electronics are added. As the song continues to build we get
a wall of noise from the synths, distortion overloading, even
as the glimmery mood of the electronics and the smooth vocals
continue underneath. The lyrics are a direct reference to
questions of familial relationships and buried feelings. It’s
an extremely effective way to open the LP. “My memory
of you is in the junk drawer of my mind,” begins the
next track, “Junk Drawer.” “’Cause
all that stuff that we went through is the stuff I don’t
want to find.” It’s a reference to how we all
try to bury bad feelings, things we don’t care to revisit.
As another song about difficulties of relating to one’s
family members, “Junk Drawer” has a cool, laid
back feel, with reverb on the drums, acoustic and electric
guitar and keyboards, with the synths interjecting some interesting
bleeps. It’s pretty and sad sounding at the same time,
like being depressed while sitting on the beach of a tropical
island. I like the lope of “Keep Your Head Down,”
and its lonely hollow sound. Toward the end of the track after
the lyrics are done, we hear an answering machine message,
presumably from Miller’s father, apologizing multiple
times for missing an earlier call, and perhaps for other things,
asking to get together. “A Dream Ends Without Starting”
has a deep gospel folk sound focused on acoustic guitar, and
a Bob Dylan twang in the vocals. It has a great driving feel,
like a train song, moving ever forward with huge momentum.
“Nothing is new, I know I shouldn’t worry / But
when you leave it’s always in a hurry,” sings
Miller, possibly referencing the difficulty of making a connection
with his father. And I really like the penultimate song, “By
Design.” It starts out quietly, with keyboards and vocals,
but there are unsettled electronics making noise in the background,
sounding like thousands of frogs at night, growing more insistent
as the song progresses. But it’s when we get to the
middle that things explode and get really good. The drums
and keyboards get loud, overloaded and distorted, with the
vocals and acoustic guitar underneath. There’s a sense
of chaos, but with an order at the center of it, just as even
within the chaos of broken trust in a family, there are still
those bonds that hold us together lurking underneath. The
closer is “Back The Way I Came,” and it’s
got some unsettled twang to it, a country folk tune that’s
gotten turned around. The odd effects are pretty cool. It
took me a few listens for this record to sink in, and I’m
really glad I stuck with it, because it’s worth it.
 DEATH
VALLEY GIRLS – Under the Spell of Joy (Suicide Squeeze
Records, www.suicidesqueeze.net)
They aren’t from Death Valley (they’re from LA)
and they’re not all girls (there’s one man in
this band of mostly women). Nonetheless, Death Valley Girls
provide something unique. Imagine mixing dark goth, dream
pop, light power pop, and garage rock and roll. The opening
track, “Hypnagogia,” is a great example of the
darker side of Death Valley Girls. Everything about it says,
“mysterious,” from the reverb to the swirling
atmospheric keyboards, the wailing saxophone pulled to the
background, and the arcane unison vocals slowly rising in
volume and anger. Hypnagogia is that space between sleep and
wakefulness, and is an apt name for the feelings evoked by
this track. Most of the other tracks are quite different from
that opener, featuring a cross between pop and garage. Like
“Hold My Hand,” a song that bounces and has pop
hooks like a good power pop song, but it also has the feel
of a classic garage rock song, courtesy of the keyboards.
When we get to the close of the song, things get big and dreamy,
too. The title track blends garage rock with some of that
dark mysteriousness, the keyboards, reverb, and sax vying
for dominance. “Bliss Out” is a favorite, with
sweet pop melding with edgy garage, making it a favorite.
As the track comes to a close it slows, and sounds almost
like an Angelo Badalamente song from Twin Peaks, getting retro
and dreamy. The aptly named “Universe” has a huge,
expansive sound, full of dreamy wonderment. Occasionally the
songs turn into a bit of a jam, like on “10 Day Miracle
Challenge,” which is also the hardest garage rock song
of the LP. And “I’d Rather Be Dreaming”
has a retro feel, a pleading quality like some of the 1950s
early rock and roll songs. There’s enough variety in
these songs, yet enough cohesiveness, to make this a pretty
good listen.
 JOE
GIDDINGS – Better From Here (Kool Kat Records, www.koolkatmusik.com)
Kool Kat’s giving a physical release to this 2016 digital
only release, and the first since Giddings’ 2014 collection
of covers. The dozen songs here mix power pop, a show tune
sensibility, hints of mid period Beatles-esque aesthetic,
some good ol’ rock and roll, and a heavy dose to 1970s
AM radio. There are harmonized vocals aplenty, reminding me
heavily of the bygone era of bubblegum pop. The title track
is one that brings show tunes to mind, as it’s got a
very theatrical sort of sound. It’s a classic introductory
kind of track, and it even references The Beatles in its lyrics.
“Amity Horror” has plenty of bounce, and the synth
gives it a sparkly sound. The deeply multi-tracked harmonized
vocals give it that bubblegum pop sound, but it’s got
a glam-power-pop edge to it, too. Favorite songs include “Tin
Foil Crush,” a rockin’ tune with crunchy guitars
and some nice pop hooks. The harmonized vocals, too, give
it that retro AM radio sound. “Rock and Roll”
is even harder-edged in places, but still definitely pop.
I like the odd key signatures the guitars go through, trying
to make the song sound tougher, even as the melody and vocals
are lighter and poppier. It’s an interesting contrast.
And the contrast between the smooth vocals and jangly chorus
with the edgy guitars in the verses is nice. I’m not
quite as thrilled with “Always Raining Somewhere,”
which has a country flair to it, with slide guitar and organ.
It’s one kind of rock and roll I could never get into.
And “Brand New Day” has a down-home beat against
jangly 60s pop guitars that’s a little jarring. Overall,
the songs here aren’t going to set the world on fire,
but they are solid pop rock.
 LOST
IN SOCIETY – Love and War (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
Asbury Park, NJ punk stalwarts Lost In Society aren’t
letting a little thing like a pandemic slow them down. After
releasing a Clash tribute EP earlier this summer, they’re
back with a five-song EP. These songs are raucous, great stuff,
really strong edgy pop punk. I absolutely love the opening
track. “All Is Fair,” which has big, bright, striding
guitars, and gives the EP it’s name. “All is fair
in love and war / So I don’t wanna be so fair no more,”
sings Zach Moyle, with a pleading, gravelly voice. Politics
and current events play a part in the lead single, “We
Want Change.” “We Want Change basically encapsulates
our current frustration and outrage at what is going on in
our country right now,” says Moyle. “We’re
seeing a system that supports violence against marginalized
groups and doesn’t hold their peers accountable for
their actions.” And the powerfully dark punk song opens
with the question to police, “How does it feel, living
with impunity? / So quick to shoot, never time to take the
blame?” The song points the damning finger at cops for
their ties to white supremacist organizations, and the huge
gang vocals throughout the song demand “We want change!
We want change! We want fucking change!” The instrumentals
are fairly simple, but provide a strong base (and the bass
is strong here, too) for the important lyrics. I like the
way “Prescribed Paranoia” blends punk and grunge,
sort of in the way The Dirty Nil does, but in a way that sounds
more raw. Likewise, the slower closing track, “Stubborn,”
is a slower, grungier one that rocks, and I could easily hear
this as a Dirty Nil tune. I had not heard this band before,
even though they’ve been around since 2004. But I definitely
will be watching for them now, because this is a great record.
 WORKING
MEN’S CLUB (Heavenly Recordings, www.heavenlyrecordings.com)
Announced on the eve of the pandemic lockdown and originally
due to come out last June, Working Men’s Club’s
self-titled debut LP is finally seeing release, some four
months after its originally intended date. And it’s
obvious upon listening to these ten songs that the Yorkshire
teenagers that make up the band have old souls, because the
music contained herein is a throwback to 1980s new-wave dance
pop and post punk. The mechanical sounds of drum beats and
electronic keyboards echo the industrial beat of the factories
and steel mills that employed so many in the north of England
and are largely shut now. Vocals are mostly spoken in a deadpan,
as much of the bands of the genre did it, with only occasional
singing. Guitars punctuate the synthesizers with a funky sound
to help you get down. I’m reminded of early post-punk
bands, like The Pop Group or Dalek I Love You, that experimented
with mixing dance beats, synths, and a punk aesthetic. “A.A.A.A.”
has a huge synth sound, with deep rumbling bass, buzzy melodic
line, and a strong mechanized backbeat. Vocals also sound
synthetic, distorted and robotic. It’s like taking that
early post punk and mashing it up with more modern industrial
dance music, giving it a heavier darker feel. “John
Cooper Clarke” is an homage to the English performance
poet of the punk era, and features some great funky guitars
reminding me of the sound of Tackhead, the industrial hip-hop
group featuring Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald,
and producer Adrian Sherwood. “White Rooms and People,”
with its disco beat and guitars, with spacey synths and spoken
vocals hammers home the post punk sound. I really like the
uncompromising “Be My Guest; its pounding rhythms and
raging guitar are relentless, and the synths provide the sound
of a thousand lost souls. “Cook A Coffee” is different
from a lot of the tracks because it makes more sparing use
of synths and more use of angry angular guitars. I do like
this blast from the past of an LP, but I could have done without
the twelve and a half minute jam at the end of the album.
The idea started out well enough, but it just extended needlessly.
But if you like early 80s post punk mashed up with hip-hop
and industrial, give this a spin.
 BOB
MOULD – Blue Hearts (Merge Records, www.mergerecords.com)
I’m going to start this with full disclosure. Hüsker
Dü is one of my all-time favorite bands. Some of their
songs are among my all-time favorite songs. The way they bridged
hardcore punk and melodic indie rock was groundbreaking. I
even bought and enjoyed Mould’s early solo stuff. But
most of his later output didn’t really do that much
for me. I know, heresy, but it just lacked the aggressiveness
I needed from Mould’s music. I drifted away. Until 2020,
with the current multiple crises facing our country, it seems
Mould has found his anger again, and when he released the
single “American Crisis” and announced this LP,
I got excited to hear his music for the first time in a couple
of decades. And here we are now, and “Blue Hearts”
is Mould’s best work since the late 1980s.
The opening acoustic track, “Heart on My Sleeve,”
is a perfect way to open this LP, with an emotional plea,
listing off the ills that are doing nothing but growing
more intense with time. The deep sadness and frustration
come through in the vocals, as Mould’s voice cracks
a couple of times. And then the album explodes with “Next
Generation.” The song is exciting and powerful, Mould’s
voice raging the way it used to, his guitar creating a wall
of sound that impossibly jangles. The real rage gets turned
on for the lead single, the aforementioned “American
Crisis.” Mould literally screams as the song opens,
and cries out, “I never thought I’d see this
bullshit again / To come of age in the ‘80s was bad
enough / We were marginalized and demonized / I watched
a lot of my generation die.” Those who do not learn
from history are doomed to repeat it, and so we are here,
but it’s even worse now, as we’ve become a nation
of armchair activists. “We wake up every day to see
a nation in flames / We click and we tweet / And we spread
these tales of blame,” Mould says, with a damning
tone. The fact that the generation that fought so hard for
change 40 years ago has now been made complacent is an intolerable
thought, but something that gets turned on us in the glaring
light of truth. The strongest lines come at the close of
the song: “Silence was death / Never forget / Silence
was death / Silence.” It’s a call to action
like no other.
“Fireball” comes next, and it’s one of
my favorites of the LP. It’s another rager, cacophonous
guitars pummeling us with noisy melody, Mould’s vocals
spitting venom more effectively than ever. The backing vocals
in the chorus glide smoothly in contrast to the leads, and
as the track comes to a conclusion, and the bedlam of the
instruments is rapidly faded out, save for a bit of guitar
feedback, those backing vocals are cranked up to reveal
the sound of a chorale in cathedral, with voices echoing
off the walls. It sends chills up my spine. “Forecast
of Rain” is a slower song, less noisy, musically,
but just as damning, lyrically. It lays bare the hypocrisy
of the “religious right,” asking a question
of the Almighty: “This love thy neighbor thing, does
it apply to all mankind? / Or only those who fit neatly
inside your narrow lines?” Turning to those who call
themselves the true believers, Mould exposes them for the
charlatans they are: “My truth is different than your
distortions and disguised interpretations twisting the words
of ancient times.” These so-called Christians reinterpret
passages from the Bible that they can twist to suit their
political ends while ignoring other parts that do not meet
their needs. The “forecast of rain” the title
alludes to is the forty days of rain needed to cleanse the
earth anew.
Other tracks I really like include “Siberian Butterfly,”
“Racing to the End,” and “Little Pieces.”
These are tracks that mix bouncy pop and hard-edged guitar
noise, the combination that made the Hüskers such a
great band. And that’s one of the things that make
Blue Hearts such a great record, too. That, and the words,
the explosive fury. These make this album one of the best
and one of the most important of 2020.
 LYDIA
LOVELESS – Daughter (Honey, You're Gonna Be Late Records,
lydialoveless.bandcamp.com)
Alt-country artist Lydia Loveless has ended her four-year
hiatus with “Daughter,” her first studio LP since
2016’s “Real.” The album documents a period
of intense change in Loveless’ life, including divorce
and moving away from her lifelong home of Columbus, Ohio.
The album title refers to a growing movement of feminism in
the country that includes billboards along roadsides “imploring
people not to hurt women because they were somebody’s
daughter or sister or mother,” says Loveless. After
her divorce she was living as an individual for the first
time, having jumped from her teen years right to marriage.
That, with her family turmoil and lack of maternal impulses,
defining herself as a daughter or sister did not give her
comfort.
“Alt-country” isn’t really an adequate
genre description for the music Loveless makes; there’s
definitely an indie pop element to it, as well. Think indie
music with a twang. The songs are uniformly heartfelt and
emotional. There’s nothing light and bouncy; it’s
all pretty deep introspective stuff. Take “Love Is
Not Enough,” one of the lead singles. I think it may
be my favorite of the album; with its jangly guitars it
has a retro power pop feel blended with the country twang
of Loveless’ vocals. The lyrics are pretty devastating,
about being in significantly different places in a relationship.
“Tell me how it feels to always see everything in
a major key,” the song asks, “When I’m
drowning in ennui.” “Love is not enough / I
wonder if it ever was / I shouldn’t have to break
you down to build me up” is the refrain. It’s
a recognition that relationships have to be on equal footing
to be successful, that just being in love isn’t enough.
The other lead single, “Wringer,” seems to be
an acceptance by Loveless of her role in her breakup. “How
did it come to this / Dividing of possessions? / Only reason
it got this far is your / Childish obsession / With everything
you thought I’d be / But could not deliver / All that
loving me ever did was run you through the wringer.”
But when that last line comes around again, it’s turned
around, to signify that a relationship is two people, and
its success or failure relies on both: “You give the
sweetest kisses dear / But you leave the stinger / All that
loving you ever did was run me through the wringer.”
The music on this one has an almost disco dance beat to
it, smoothly strummed guitars with a hint of funkiness.
“Never” is another track with a dance beat to
it after its otherworldly intro with piano and synth. It’s
a song of apology and acceptance. “And I know that
I’m not ever gonna get you back / Let me tell you
that I’m sorry ‘cause I owe you that,”
explains the chorus. Piano sadly plinks out some chords,
as the guitars jangle, the drums keeping a steady dance
beat, and through it all, Loveless gives her emotional confession.
“When You’re Gone” is another of the jangly
guitar tracks, and combing that with the deep bass notes
give the song an epic pop feel. In this case, being gone
refers to death, something that comes for all of us eventually.
“When you’re gone there will be no healing,
no moment of clarity / You will be dead, there will be no
reeling out into the street / ‘Cause there was never
anything I could do,” sings Loveless, declaring the
finality of death. And I adore the penultimate track “September,”
a quiet ballad with piano and strings. The backing vocals
on the chorus will send chills down your spine.
No, alt-country doesn’t do Loveless justice. Her
music is richer and more complex than that simple moniker
would imply.
 FULLER
– Crush Me (www.listentofuller.com)
It’s alt pop. No, it’s dance pop. As the little
girl says in the TV commercial and now famous meme, “Why
not both?” On his debut EP, J.P. Welsh is the man behind
Fuller. Relocated from Austin, Texas to Los Angeles at the
start of 2019, Welsh set to work with producer Eric Palmquist
to lay down the tracks that form this record. The tracks blend
a strong dance club beat with indie rock instrumentation and
indie pop hooks to create a fun sounding upbeat record. The
lyrics are not so bubbly, though, with themes of bad romance,
and anxiety. My favorite track is the opener, “Favorite
Poison.” It’s so sparkly and fizzy and fun, and
the lyrics liken one’s romantic partner to the titular
substance. “I stay out too late with you / Get too drunk
in front of you / I can’t tell my friend the truth /
You’re a bad habit and I’m a bad boyfriend”
says one verse. The title track has the strongest dance beat,
with a hard pounding bass, but the melody is smooth and poppy.
The lyrics are full of anxiety about lack of self-worth. “Take
a shot at my soul, take a shot at my soul / it’s not
worth much anymore / and I’m not one to deny it, so
/ If you steal my heart, if you steal my heart / You should
tear it apart / But let me down easy.” And “Sink
or Swim” continues the blend of dance and pop, this
time adding an element of dreaminess in the production. “Yr
So Retro” tries to add a harder rock and roll edge to
the mix, and I don’t think this recipe works quite as
well; the dark rock, dance beats, and dream pop guitar seem
to clash too much. “Change My Mind” feels pop
radio ready, and normally that would be as turn-off for me.
But there’s just something about Fuller that I really
like. The production might be slick and big-time ready, but
the melodies and hooks are solidly indie, and Fuller has hooked
me.
 MUCK
AND THE MIRES – Take Me Back to Planet Earth (Rum
Bar Records, www.rumbarrecords.com)
Just before the pandemic stay at home orders were issued,
Boston garage rockers Muck and the Mires released a single
from what was to be a forthcoming LP, due out this summer.
Perhaps COVID-19 had other ideas. But instead, in this autumnal
age, we get six new songs in one EP, all recoded during the
lockdown. The title track is pure retro early 60s fun, with
lyrics seemingly inspired by grade B sci-fi flicks of the
era. I love the jangle of “6 O’clock,” a
song with more pop than garage, but still 60s retro style.
It’s a self-assured song about not needing to make plans
on a Friday night, because he’s already got his “6
o’clock baby” to stay in with. As we get to “Hey
Sunshine,” the music continues to get poppier and lighter,
yet still with that solid 60s sound in the vein of the Beatles,
but somewhat rougher and gruffer. “She Blocked My Number”
blends garage and pop for a fun one, and the lyrics speak
to modern problems of telecommunications features introduced
much more recently than what the music style would imply.
The most timely is the closer, “Zoom Breakup,”
a bouncy garage pop tune about how much better it is to break
up over a zoom meeting than by writing a letter. I wonder
how many Zoom breakups there have been since the lockdown
started. We may not have gotten the LP (yet) but this EP is
great fun.
 RYAN
AND PONY – Moshi Moshi (Pravda Records, www.pravdamusic.com)
Here comes the debut LP from Ryan and Pony, a new project
featuring Ryan Smith and Pony Hixon-Smith, both of The Melismatics
(Ryan is also a member of another well-known Minneapolis band,
Soul Asylum), and Peter Anderson (Run Westy Run, The Ocean
Blue) on drums. On this debut LP, the trio mix dream-pop,
indie, EDM and post-punk, in different ratios on each song,
to create a unique sound that varies considerably from track
to track. After the dancey dreamy bubblegum opener, “Starry
Eyes,” “Start Making Sense” has a hard-edged
guitar sound, giving this track a grittier rock and roll feel,
though the contrasting vocals are smooth. “Fast As I
Can” is, for the most part, a relaxed easy pop track
that’s somewhat forgettable, except that just past the
halfway mark there’s an awesome bridge with some great
jazzy improvisation on different types of horns, and I wish
there was more of that. I do like the retro pop of “Be
Still My Baby,” the closely harmonized vocals reminiscent
of 60s pop, and “Cinematic” is aptly titled. It’s
got a big sound like something from a movie soundtrack, crossed
with Human League (who remembers 80s synth pop?). First Night
can’t decide if it wants to be dream pop or indie rock,
and I love that about it. It’s got a driving beat and
raucous guitars, but it also has plenty of reverb, cool synths,
and that wall of sound. Like some of the other songs, this
one has a bridge past the halfway mark that’s completely
different from the rest of the track, in this case it’s
almost metallic guitars and a head banging beat. “Take
It Or Leave It” sounds like it’s from a totally
different band, being a real rocker without any dream, pop,
or EDN pretense. It’s indie rock mixed with power pop
and glam, and it’s definitely a favorite. And the intro
to “Come Find Me” is gorgeous classical music
played on rock and roll instruments, leading into an incongruously
energetic pop ballad. The variety is breathtaking, but you
can (for the most part) still tell this is all from the same
band. This makes for a good listen.
 SHY
BOYS – Talk Loud (Polyvinyl Records, www.polyvinylrecords.com)
Shy Boys play smooth, sweet, bubblegum pop, influenced by
pop music of the 80s, but making use of synthesizers rather
than traditional guitar and bass. The harmonized vocals are
silken and the music is airy and light. The synths play repetitive
melodic lines in a mechanical manner, as the fragile sounding
vocals glide along. After a number of songs all in the moderate
tempo category with the same feel, we get “The Pool,”
which starts out with a gorgeous lounge piano until the synths
and drums come in, and I’m disappointed and long for
that piano, as the track becomes more of the same, albeit
with softer and less robotic keyboard sounds. “Trash,”
one of the lead singles, begins with a different sound, with
deep dark bass synth and unison vocals that sound menacing
– until it turns into synth-pop again. I like synths,
and I like bubblegum pop sometimes. But I just can’t
get into the overly insubstantial songs on this LP.
 SURFER
BLOOD – Carefree Theater (Kanine Records, www.kaninerecords.com)
A band plagued with tragedy and controversy, Surfer Blood
are back with their first LP of new original material since
2017’s “Snowdonia.” After front man John
Paul Pitts’ arrested for domestic assault, their brief
career on major label Warner Brothers’ Sire Records
imprint was over. But the band continued on indie label Joyful
Noise. Pitts initially pled not guilty, then did a “plea
and pass” deal in which he attended a program designed
to prevent a recurrence, and after completion the following
spring, charges were dropped. Pitts has maintained his innocence
throughout, and has not apologized for his actions. Today,
that would be the end of a band, but a mere seven years ago
it was business as usual for a band. Later, tragedy struck
again with the death of original guitarist Thomas Fakete’s
death from a rare form of cancer. This occurred shortly before
the release of “Snowdonia.” Now, more than three
years later, the band has returned to Kanine Records, the
band that released their first records more than a decade
ago. And it’s… OK. It’s smooth, even-keeled
alternative rock. Oh, sure, some of the songs are better than
average. I do like the dark wave “Karen,” with
its dance beat and 80s Manchester sound, dominated by the
prominent bass. “Unconditional” has a retro post-punk
pop sound, kind of reminding me of The Smiths, and the organ
warms things up nicely. And the gently plucked acoustic guitar
in the closing track, “Rose Bowl,” is lovely,
especially at the very end of the track. But other than these
moments, the songs are fine, but just too relaxed and don’t
grab my attention. There’s just out of the ordinary.
Just smooth, steady, uneventful songs.
 NICK
FRATER – Fast and Loose (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
Growing up in the 1970s, I was exposed to a ton of top 40
AM radio, the music of Burt Bacharach, and all the bubblegum
music you can imagine. If Nick Frater was writing and recording
these songs 50 years ago, he’d be ruling the airwaves
along side Mr. B, whose easy pop rock hits “Raindrops
Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “Say a Little
Prayer,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,”
and more defined a decade. Frater’s music is a little
edgier than Bacharach’s hits, but not too much. “Let’s
Hear It For Love” is the first real “song,”
after the short instrumental intro title track. No, it’s
not a cover of the Smoking Popes’ great pop punk crooner,
though it does seem to use the idea behind that song’s
lyrics and even a little bit of the melody in the chorus.
Songs like “Luna,” with its organ and lightly
driving rhythm, have subtle hints of garage rock influence,
but the smoothness of the harmonized vocals are pure light
pop. “Cocaine Gurls” is a song about trying to
give up all the “bad things” that come from the
fast and loose rock and roll world, but getting pulled back
in by the titular characters. It’s a typically bouncy
pop with a little bit of power, but not quite enough to push
it over the top. “California Waits” is the epitome
of the 70s sugary pop sound, even including some glockenspiel,
and the guitar tone is spot on for the style. “Would
You Like To Go” sounds like it could have come from
the Sesame Street kids’ TV show, with a simple melody
and its sweet message of friendship. I do like “Buy
You Time,” which has a bit of retro doo-wop sound to
it, and features piano, synths, jangly guitar, bass and drums
in the mix. It’s got a strong back beat and an epic
quality to it. But most of this LP just doesn’t have
enough oomph. I was never a fan of 70s bubblegum pop.
 MERCY
MUSIC – Nothing In The Dark (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
This is a simple review to write. This record is, in a word,
outstanding! The music is melodic, poppy, and edgy, all rolled
up into one. The hooks are prodigious, and the sound is bigger
than the three-piece they are. This band deserves to be much
bigger than they are right now. “Tuesday” is one
helluva song. The hooks are awesome, the melody pretty, the
playing and singing powerful – all the best put together
into one song. It’s pop punk, it’s power pop,
and it’s got some nice grunge touches, too. It’s
one of the best songs of the year so far, to my ears. And
the title track is another favorite. It’s just guitarist-vocalist
Brendan Scholz playing acoustic guitar and singing, but the
song is just so nice. Scholz can really write some great melodies.
And those lyrics are so…sad, a song about aloneness.
“When I go out I’ll be sure that I go out alone
/ We can be two lonely people the way it was before.”
Make me cry, Brendan. “Tell Me I’m Wrong”
blends the angst of emo, the melodic sensibilities of pop,
and the heaviness of grunge. The result is a strong rock and
roll song that you can’t decide if you want to dance
to it, cry to it, or head-bang to it. The closing track, “Even
If I’ve Lost,” is a real banger, too. You’re
going to want to get up and jump around when this one comes
on. It’s fast and bouncy and a ton of fun. This is a
strong contender for the 2020 Best of list.
PURPLE
WITCH OF CULVER – Trig (Loantaka Records, www.loantaka-records.com)
This is a new single from a new group, featuring saxophonist
Sarah Safaie and producer/ multi-instrumentalist Evan Taylor.
The track blends jazz, funk, hip-hop, chill-out EDM, and spoken
word beat poetry. A continuous pounding drumbeat interlocks
with the funky bass, and tenor sax interjects with some smooth
lines. Safaie’s deadpan vocals give us the words, and
a chill keyboard throws out some descending chords from time
to time. This isn’t typical Jersey Beat indie music,
but it’s certainly worthy of your attention.
 TEENAGE
HALLOWEEN (Don Giovanni Records, www.dongiovannirecords.com)
Fall is upon us, and it’s pumpkin spice season again.
Thankfully, Teenage Halloween, though named for the season’s
favorite holiday, doesn’t have any of the blandness
of the ubiquitous flavoring. They call themselves a power
pop band, but they aren’t. As much as I love good power
pop, Teenage Halloween sell themselves short with that description,
because the band’s sound is richer, more complex, and
more varied than would be implied by that simple genre label.
That makes their debut LP a winner. And yes, it’s their
debut. Even though the band has been kicking around since
2014, this is their first LP. But it was worth the wait. Vocalist
Luke Hendericks belts out the words with a folk punk power
and angst – but there’s no folk punk on the record!
It’s got that gravelly but higher pitched quality I
most associate with folk punk. Some of the songs have a great
epic quality, such as the opener, “Stationary.”
The song is expansive, yet raucous. It’s a great introduction
to the band and leaves me wanting to listen to more. I really
love the fast and loud “Holes,” which has punk
undertones, but has more of the sound of an indie pop song,
with great melodic hooks. And “SMH City, too, has great
power and great melody. Hendericks’ vocals really set
the tone for this song, giving it a scratchy edge and an urgency.
But that also comes from the pounding drums, thrumming bass,
and the screaming keyboards. “Summer Money” has
bright sound from Brandon Hakim’s saxophone that gives
the song a nice jangle, even as it has a retro rock and roll
beat. And I like the jazzy sound with bass, drums, and piano
in the closing track, “Turn Right, Goes Straight,”
as well as the clanging guitars,
The label’s write-up about the band on their website
says that Teenage Halloween’s sound is “rooted
in abundance,” and that’s an apt description.
The band has a big sound, and, as their bio states, “”lyrics
that grapple with vulnerability, community, extreme existentialism,
mental illness, and gender euphoria.” I especially
love that last term, as it juxtaposes with the condition
of “gender dysphoria.” Dysphoria is a defined
as a state of unease or dissatisfaction with life, while
euphoria is joy and celebration. This record was originally
slated to come out during the summer, and Teenage Halloween
were scheduled to play The Fest 19 in October. 2020 hasn’t
been kind to any bands. Hopefully 2021 will bring an end
to the pandemic, a return of live music, and a reinvigorated
Teenage Halloween, ready to tour, will be coming to a club
near you.
 TOBIN
SPROUT – Empty Horses (Fire Records, www.firerecords.com)
Tobin Sprout should be well known to most Jersey Beat readers.
He was a longtime member of Guided By Voices, penning some
of that band’s songs. With GBV’s Robert Pollard
he founded Airport 5, releasing a couple of LPs and numerous
singles. And “Empty Horses” is his seventh solo
LP. The ten songs here, for the most part, feel dusty and
lonesome, yielding the feeling of Sprout as troubadour, wandering
from place to place, singing his songs and telling his tales.
Part of this comes from his mastery of lo-fi recording. It’s
not so lo-fi as to be distracting, and not so slick as to
feel overproduced. It ends up with a nice DIY feel, as someone
doing the best he can with the tools he has. I particularly
love the piano sound he gets; it sounds like a home recording,
slightly distant, sad and lonesome. Part of it, too, comes
from Sprout’s vocal style; it has the weary and worn
sound of someone who’s seen and done way too much, and
needs to talk about it. There’s a decent variety in
the songs, though they’re all distinctly singer-songwriter
fare. There are some simple acoustic guitar and vocal songs,
the best of which is the simple “Every Sweet Soul.”
It’s a pure, gorgeous song, just acoustic guitar and
some overdubbed vocals and a pretty melody. Another great
one is “Antietam,” with acoustic guitar and wood
block percussion. It’s a song living a simple life growing
up amidst a sea of troubles, then joining the fight for freedom
and making the ultimate sacrifice. There are songs with electric
guitar, and some with slide guitar too, giving an Americana
alt-country feel. “Breaking Down” is a pretty
ballad in this category about the call of the road, the need
to go places, both literally and metaphorically. I really
like “The Man I Used to Know,” one of the two
“rock” songs of the LP. The heavy reverb and guitar
tone give it that lonely dusty sound. The other is “All
In My Sleep,” which has more of an indie rock sound
than the others, with buzzy guitar effects. As the song evolves
it adds piano and slide guitar, becoming a bit of an instrumental
jam. That piano features prominently in songs such as “On
Golden Rivers,” which also includes acoustic guitar
and strings (or string synth). The overdubbed backing vocals
are slightly out of sync with each other, giving it a “realistic”
sound of a group of singers gathered together, singing for
themselves. And the beautiful closing track is just piano
and vocals, “No Shame.” It’s a short one,
with a song that warns, “crawl away, you’re in
danger boy,” and then declares, “there’s
no shame on you, no shame.” There is no shame in self-preservation.
Though all the songs could qualify as ballads, and some of
the songs veer uncomfortably close to spiritual topics, there’s
still an honesty in these songs that make them appealing.
 BRIAN
CULLMAN – Winter Clothes (Sunnyside Records, www.sunnysiderecords.com)
Brian Cullman, formerly of OK Savant, is releasing a solo
LP, but it’s one that includes collaboration with a
number of other musicians, including Jimi Zhivago, who passed
away in late 2018 during work on this project. It took Cullman
a year to come back to these songs and complete the album.
The result is definitely singer-songwriter fare, but there’s
a lot of diversity from song to song, with some having a Bob
Dylan sort of vibe, others being more power pop, some adult
contemporary, and others country-folk. The variety is something
I personally praise every time I encounter it, and it keeps
the listener engaged. Favorites include “Down Down Down,”
a bluesy folk-rock jam that reminds me of Little Feat. “Wrong
Birthday” is the one that brings Dylan to mind pretty
quickly, or maybe a tamed Mick Jagger, with a song about being
at the wrong place in life for things to work out the way
you want. Speaking of the wrong place in life, “As A
Man Gets Older” is a sad, lovely folk tune about how
our lives change as we age. Delicately plucked acoustic guitars
provide the primary instruments, along with electric bass,
and the subtle backing vocals and organ are gorgeous. The
previously released “New Year’s Eve” is
here, also with a strong Dylan influence, about looking for
love at the holidays. But my favorite track of the LP has
to be “Wrong Girl.” Despite opening with mandolin,
this is an unabashed power pop track, something that could
have come from the pen of Paul Collins (of The Nerves and
The Beat). If you take out the organ, mandolin, and slide
guitar, this would be at home in any rock and roll club in
the country. This is coming out at just the right time, because
this is going to be a great listen on those cold rainy fall
days.
 IN
PARALLEL – Fashioner (Wiretap Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
This is a very different record than anything Wiretap has
put out to date. This isn’t punk; it’s not pop
punk. It’s big expansive music, synth heavy, dripping
with dreaminess. It’s bass heavy, and has a strong beat,
so in that sense it reminds me, in some superficial ways,
of early New Order, but like a less emphatic, more ethereal
version. There’s definitely an ‘80s vibe in the
melodies and synths, but the arrangements are more modern.
“Six Over Eight” has moments that are swirly,
though most of it features deep growling bass and darkness,
but with a gauzy silkiness floating above it. The title track,
which bears the subtitle, “No Exit,” has a distinct
dance beat to it, bringing up memories of those 80s bands
even more strongly, but tempered with a modern rock sensibility.
“Deep Dark” is an interesting one in that it blends
the synth-dream-pop style with a 2000s melodic emo style.
The music and vocals are big and the production feels slick.
Maybe a bit too slick. “Leave it With The Ghost”
has a very deliberate beat, but it’s not really a dancey
song. It starts out on the quiet side and builds, the grumbling
bass and drums working in unison to create an air of tension,
while the heavily reverbed guitar and vocals try to give a
sense of ease. ”Threat of Heaven” closes things
out, starting as a quiet dreamy anthem. Halfway through, it
explodes into cacophony, with the bass and drums still holding
the center, keeping things aligned amidst what is otherwise
a soundtrack to chaos. Noise and buzzing come from the synths
and the guitars, the level rising, the feedback growing. These
last two tracks are my favorite of the EP, probably because
they have the richest texture of the quintet of songs. Overall,
Fashioner is not the sort of record I would seek out, but
it has its moments.
 BLAKE
JONES – The Homebound Tapes (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
Music has gotten quieter and more intimate during the pandemic
shutdown, as people turn to home recording without full band
arrangements. And that’s the case with the aptly titled
“The Homebound Tapes,” from Big Stir Records’
founding father, Blake Jones. The half dozen tracks here are
quite varied, even as they’re mostly acoustically based,
as are most new home recorded releases. The opening song,
“The Last Song of Summer,” comes at a perfect
time, as we reach September and Labor Day weekend. It’s
delicate acoustic guitar, bass, and Jones’ vocals singing
a Neil Young-like song celebrating the ending of summer and
farewells in general. “Do the Lockdown Bossa Nova”
is an awesome track that features guitar, various percussion
instruments, and a theremin playing the Latin inspired melody.
It’s quirky and eerie; you can imagine ghostly apparitions
dancing to the Brazilian beat. “Three Jerks in a Jeep”
is my favorite of the record. It’s an understated garage
rock and roll song that rocks out quietly, while providing
a biting satirical commentary on conservative complaints about
this summer’s protests. I like the folksy waltz, “Homebound,”
performed on acoustic guitar and mandolin. It’s a ballad
about pulling up roots and moving during the global pandemic
lockdown, and it’s a pretty song, but sad, as it speaks
of leaving everything you’ve known for years and driving
along empty roads and shuttered restaurants. It’s also
apparently the true story of Big Stir’s Rex Broome’s
parents, who did just that at the outset of the stay at home
orders. The bookend of “The Last Song of Summer”
is called, well, “The First Song of Summer,” and
it’s a lighthearted song that feels like it could come
from a stage show, all happy and a bit silly. “Make
Peace” ends the EP, and it’s an anthem to the
sentiment, as Blake pleads that we do just that. Electric
guitar, piano, and drums give the song the feel of a quiet
march. And marching for justice and peace has been a central
part of 2020. Six songs, six sounds, six sentiments, all around
current themes. What could be better?
 NOi!SE
– Welcome to Tacoma (Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
Tacoma, Washington’s street punks dropped a surprise
EP! Not only is it a surprise in that it was unannounced,
it’s a surprise that this is an all acoustic record,
sounding nothing like their usual raucous selves. There are
four tracks here, acoustic versions of fan favorites. “Dull
The Pain,” from “The Real Enemy” LP, instead
of being the relentless pounding song it was on the album,
it’s a pretty Latin-influenced number that I could see
a punk mariachi band playing. The vocals come through like
never before, too, and are deep and rich. “So I Drift
Away,” which comes from the album “The Scars We
Hide,” isn’t as drastic of a transformation, as
it changes from a gritty street punk song into a gritty folk-punk
song. And those sumptuous vocals just make this work so well.
On the same LP, “Rank and File” is noisy and a
bit chaotic, but here it’s luscious jangly dark folk
punk. “Rising Tide” may be my favorite song of
theirs, from the album of the same name. It’s a great
punk anthem with challenging intervals for singing. Here it
transforms to a fast paced crooner of a song, with wondrous
Morrissey-like vocals (but without the controversy). And it’s
still my favorite. Yes, this EP is a surprise in more than
one way, and it’s a welcome surprise.
 SILENT
ERA – Rotate the Mirror (Nervous Intent Records, nervousintent.bigcartel.com)
From Oakland, CA, Silent Era plays melodic hardcore –
but not the kind of modern melodic hardcore you’re thinking
of, not the kind that borders on metal. This is the kind of
post hardcore that was being made in the 80s, and that guitar
tone! It’s a very 80s punk sound, reminding me a lot
of Boston’s The Proletariat. It’s also got a dose
of California surf punk guitar thrown in, too. The music is
speedy, melodic, hard-edged, and even bouncy! Vocals are powerful
and clear. Some of the tracks are more melodic, some are super
fast and crunchy. I like both. “Say It Again”
is incredibly intense, the proverbial fast and loud punk music,
and it’s a standout. “Unserving Lie” is
one of the poppiest songs you’ll hear all year, but
it’s also one of the fastest and most cracking. It makes
it one of my favorites of the LP. The same can be said about
“The Hook.” The band is super tight and these
tunes are really punchy. Strongly recommended!
 SOULSIDE
– This Ship (Dischord Records, www.dischord.com)
You have no idea how excited I was when Soulside announced
this new record. I loved Soulside back in the day, and during
their very short tenure they put out some excellent records
that are still among my favorites. When they announced their
reunion for a few special shows in conjunction with the release
of the DC punk documentary, “Salad Days,” I actually
bought a plane ticket to fly to DC to catch their two shows
at The Black Cat. I thought that was that, but they continued
to play, making their way across the USA where I caught them
again at The Casbah in San Diego, and they toured Europe.
It was while they were overseas that they found time to get
into the studio and record their first new music since 1989,
and the result is “This Ship,” a two-song 7”
single whose download comes with a third bonus song. And,
while you can still recognize these new songs as Soulside,
they don’t sound identical to the songs they last released
over thirty years ago. And that’s good, because bands
should continue to evolve and grow. The songs are melodic
and powerful, with post-hardcore touches. The title track
makes great use of guitar feedback and noise, yielding an
urgent feel, while the guitar, bass, and drums provide a retro
surf garage pop feel mixed with, of course, a DC post-hardcore
sound. Of course, the lyrics are a political and social commentary,
in this case likening society to a ship that we all need to
work together to right, lest it capsize. The B-side of the
vinyl release, “Madeleine Said,” has a bit of
a Jawbox/J Robbins feel to it, with jangly dissonance in the
guitars, but a slower, more melodic, gliding vocal line above
that. The bonus track is “Survival,” and the same
jangly noisy guitars are there, but the song has a bit more
of a pop melody. It seemed impossible at first, then just
unlikely. But now, Soulside are back. I hope this is a harbinger
of a new full length LP to come.
 BEAUTIFUL
DUDES – Nite Songs (Dowd Records, www.dowdrecords.com)
Following up from their 7” release earlier this year,
Beautiful Dudes return with a six-song EP of dark, yet varied
indie rock. The songs all have a melancholy running through
them, yet each sounds distinctly different from the others.
“Nothing But the Black” opens the EP with the
most raucous of the tracks and a very 80s post punk feel.
“Beverly Hills” is a little poppier with lovely
guitar distortion, in the same way that The Jesus and Mary
Chain used noise and pop melody. “Nite Nite” brings
metal and grunge to the table, and “I Don’t Ever
Want To Get Out Of Bed” is a morose ballad, the depression
and gloom palpable. “The Champion” closes the
EP with an epic cacophony. But my favorite is the penultimate
track, “Today Is Just Today.” It has an 80s retro
sound like the opener, but it’s quieter, poppier, and
with a gritty blend of surf and western. The guitar sound
reminds me a lot of the The Plugz’ “Reel 10,”
the music from the climax of the film “Repo Man.”
The EP is nicely cohesive while maintaining a good variety.
 CHASER
– Look Alive (www.chaserpunkrock.com)
Two new songs from SoCal skate punks Chaser. The songs are
speedy and melodic, with plenty of harmonized whoa-oh vocals.
The Orange County melodic punk sound is strong in this pair
of songs. Of the two, I think the B-side, “Found Myself
Again,” gets the edge. It’s bouncier and poppier,
and I like the crunchiness of the bass and guitars. And best
of all, 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this record
will be donated to four worthy organizations, Equal Justice
Initiative, Educational First Steps, Crisis Aid International,
and Surfrider Foundation. You get good music and you get to
help the cause.
 COLD
YEARS – Paradise (eOne Music, www.entertainmentone.com)
Paradise is the debut LP from Scottish band Cold Years. Hailing
from Aberdeen, on Scotland’s east coast, the band joke’s
that the album’s title is a sarcastic reference to their
hometown, which is decidedly not a paradise. Musically, the
band play big, melodic, emotion-filled music that lies somewhere
between pop punk and alterative rock. It’s odd, because
the slick production and alternative rock sort of stuff is
a sound I don’t normally go for, but Cold Years have
enough of an edge to their music, enough of an urgent sound,
that I’m digging this record. Ross Gordon’s vocals
are heartfelt, something you can hear clearly from the opening
track of the LP, “31.” It starts with just acoustic
guitar and vocals, and the vocals are raspy and pleading.
Songs that stand out for me include those that have more of
the pop punk edge to them. “Life With A View”
is one such song, with great striding guitars and pleading
vocals. “Breathe” has a post-hardcore feel mixed
into the smoother pop punk and alternative rock sounds that
gives this track a bit of an edge. “Burn The House Down”
is one of the most intense tracks, too, and it’s my
favorite of the bunch. It’s intense, but very melodic.
One thing I notice about many of the tracks is that they start
off with a harder, edgier sound, and as the song evolves the
often smooth out, moving more toward the alternative pop punk
sounds. I wish they would maintain that edgier sound throughout
the songs. “Too Far Gone” is the opposite, though,
starting more quietly and getting bigger, moving through a
slick alternative rock phase and moving to a jumpy, boisterous,
poppy section. And the closer, “Hunter,” is just
beautiful, an acoustic song with guitar and Gordon’s
earnest singing. Yeah, I kinda unexpectedly dig this record.
 GODCASTER
– Long Haired Locusts (Ramp Local, www.ramplocal.com)
Mix together 70s funk and pop and a large dose of experimentalism
and you get Godcaster! “Rising from the underground
river of primordial goo that runs between New York City and
Philadelphia,” as the band say, this is the band’s
debut LP.” And it’s explosive, right from the
get-go. The opening track, humorously titled, “Even
Your Blood Is Electric,” has the funky sounds of a 70’s
TV cop show theme song. One thing this song has that’s
a common thread throughout the album is the use of flute and
keyboards playing melodic lines in unison. It gives these
songs a bright tone, and emphasizes the 70s influence, whether
the tracks are funky or poppy. I love not just these songs,
but their titles, too. “Don’t Make Stevie Wonder,”
“Christ in Capsule Form,” “All the Feral
Girls in the Universe,” and “Rapturous Climax”
are just a few examples. I really enjoy the way “Apparition
of Mother Mary In My Neighborhood” oscillates between
odd, off-kilter pop, funk, and chaotic avant-garde. “Sassy
Stick Boy,” with its flute and what sounds like glockenspiel,
opens with the sweet sound of a Sesame Street vignette. The
bits of guitar wah-pedal in the background emphasize the 70s
nature of the track, and even the pretty harmonized vocals
have hints of a condescending tone that we get in kids’
music. Besides having a pun for a title, “Don’t
Make Stevie Wonder” has some great funk and cacophonous
experimentalism that’s a blast to listen to. “Christ
In Capsule Form” is way too short, but it’s a
glorious hymn, sung in choral form – or as close to
that as you get from this collection of oddball musicians.
“Escape From the Challenger Deep” is a gorgeous
quiet ballad that also sounds like something that could have
come from a twisted version of Sesame Street until the halfway
mark when it undergoes a transformation into something out
of a manic psychedelic science fiction soundtrack. “Sexy
Heffer” is a fun one that starts off as a simple off-kilter
funk track, but gets wilder and more chaotic as it goes. There’s
one song that’s borderline punk, and that’s the
manic “The Skull!!!” The music is as emphatic
as those three exclamation marks imply, with a speedy tempo,
edgy guitars, and urgent sounding synths. Man, this is crazy,
refreshingly different stuff. Recommended.
 NEW
WAY VENDETTA – Cough Cool b/w 1984 (On The Floor)
(www.facebook.com/newwayvendetta)
New Way Vendetta is a collective of pro-mask radicals with
links to Christian Death, The Jackalopes, Electric Frankenstein,
Cricketbows, Shadow Project, C.O.H., Kathedral, Rozz Williams,
The Empire Hideous and more. On this debut release they offer
up one cover and one original. The cover is, of course, that
of the famous Misfits tune. New Way Vendetta slow the song
a bit, add tons of atmospheric synths, making it sound more
like something from a dystopian science fiction film. Some
other interesting touches: the emphasis on the lyric “cover
your face” and the introductory bit with a synthesized
voice ordering people to wear a face covering and maintain
social distancing. The original track on the “virtual
B-side” focuses on dark synth driven pop and gang vocals.
The lyrics provide a warning: “Big Brother is watching
you / Keeping track of your every move.” It’s
obvious these mysterious figures are having a laugh. Laugh
along.
 PROTON
PACKS – Paradox (Mom’s Basement Records, momsbasementrecords.bigcartel.com)
Italian punks Proton Packs are back with their fourth full-length
LP, and their second coming out of Mom’s Basement. Proton
Packs are Ramones-core, and they also claim The Misfits, Lillingtons,
Head, and Iron Maiden as influences. I guess I can see most
of that. The music is big and chunky, with loads of chukka-chukka
guitars. The songs are dark, too, with most of them being
modal or in minor keys. Individually, the songs are decent
enough, with a skate punk vibe. But there’s too much
sameness throughout the 14 tracks. There’s no variation
in tempo, no variation in the sound. With maybe the exception
of “Business As Unusual,” which includes a synth,
providing at least a little something different with an 80s
new wave vibe underneath the punk rock. “The Mystery
Zone” also uses synth, but only in the opening seconds,
and here and there through the track. Other than that, there’s
no difference in the sound of this track and any of the others.
It’s hard to tell when one track starts and the next
one ends, other than the moment of silence between them. Now,
don’t get me wrong, Proton Packs are a good band. The
songs are powerful and energetic. But there’s just too
much sameness here to keep my attention over a 33-minute span.
 SATURDAY’S
HEROES – Turn Up The Music! (Lövely Records,
www.llyrecords.com)
Swedish punk-fucking-rock! This is melodic punk, with plenty
of power and pop, lots of big gang vocals, and a party atmosphere.
I love the way the lead vocals are belted out. “We’re
All Done” opens the album with a great street punk
vibe and an anthemic quality. This is the kind of song that
gets everyone in the club singing along and jumping around.
Several of the songs are big street punk anthems, too, and
I hear a warm organ in the background – something
that’s becoming more common with bands of this genre.
“Dead of Night” starts with a great classic
melodic punk sound reminding me of Youth Brigade from back
in the 80s, then speeds up to become skate punk track, going
back and forth between slower and faster paces, giving it
a nice varied texture. “Seven Seas” has a great
loping rock and roll feel, and I love the great big “This
Is The End,” a track that sounds as if it closes out
their live sets (or did before the pandemic). “Turn
Up The Music” closes the mini LP, and is a favorite,
with a bluesy rock and roll sound for the first half, then
turning into a raucous street punk anthem. This is fun stuff.
 THE
HAPPY FITS – What Could Be Better (www.thehappyfits.com)
Well, damn! Nothing beats a record where you can just tell
the band had a blast making it, and I can hear the joy throughout
the ten songs on The Happy Fits’ sophomore LP. The three-piece
is made up of guitar (Ross Montieth), drums (Luke Davis) and….cello?
(Calvin Langman). Although Langman takes on most of the lead
vocals, all three sing, and harmonize, providing a thick,
rich vocal sound. The opening track (and lead single) is oddly
not representative of the rest of the LP, sounding completely
different from any other song. But it’s still a ton
of fun. It’s “Go Dumb,” and it’s pretty
rocking garage. The only change I would make to it might a
slight increase in the tempo, but it’s got a huge sound,
and man, that cello rocks! The balance of the LP is uniformly
upbeat joyous indie rock and pop, with the exception of the
penultimate “Get a Job,” which is a harder rocking
song, almost like grunge – but more like a grunge song
from a rock opera. The arrangement and writing are very theatrical
– and superb! In this dramatic aspect it reminds me
a little bit of Queen. The guitar and cello work as percussion
with the drums, pummeling away incessantly, propelling the
vocals. I love the exuberant “No Instructions,”
with its moments of Beatles-esque pop. The 50s doo-wop retro
pop of “Moving” is a ton of fun and I hear hints
of 60s cinema soundtrack and Latin influence, as well. Speaking
of Latin influence, “Two of Many” has it aplenty,
mixed with Afro-Caribbean beats, and it’s my favorite
track of the LP. Its energetic rhythm, breezy melody, and
huge vocals (including gloriously huge harmonies) are infectious,
and I dare you to listen to this song without getting up and
dancing. Another favorite is the delicate “The Garden.”
Plucked cello and guitar punctuate the beautiful soaring vocals.
Every single song on this record is gorgeous, beautiful, fun.
At the risk of sounding effusive, I will declare that this
record will end up on my list of the year’s best. Plus,
you can check out our fearless editor’s recent interview
with the band here.
 BLOODY
YOUR HANDS – Sunday Scaries (bloodyyourhands.bandcamp.com)
New York’s Bloody Your Hands brings us their third full-length
LP, the first since 2017’s “Monsters Never Die.”
And though it was written over a two-year period, its themes
of anxiety, isolation, hope, loss, exhaustion, death, and
struggling with adulthood are more relevant than ever. And
the ten songs here are nothing short of remarkably gorgeous.
My number one favorite of the album has to be the glorious
“Insincere Apologies,” a song of communications
breakdowns in relationships, the inability to be vulnerable
when confronted with threatening situations, and the feelings
of hopelessness that induces. The music oscillates between
a pretty delicate guitar line with an ominous bass and a loud
grunge rock and roll sound. It’s like when you try to
start a discussion about a bad situation, first apologetically,
then becoming defensive when confronted The chorus opens up,
like a person shouting, huge and expansive; “Wasted
and dysfunctional / Wasted and dysfunctional / Waste my breath,
like yelling at a wall.” I really like the opener, “Insomnia,”
too. The quick tempo in the instrumentals contrasts with the
slower glide of the vocals, the song seeming to be in 12/8
time, the vocals on the 4/4 rhythm and the instruments doing
a quick 3/4. There’s some cool 90s indie sounds in the
guitars on this one, with some pretty chord progressions.
“Checked Out” is, perhaps, the most punk-like
of the songs, with a strong pop punk edge, though the melody
and arrangement are of a more mature indie-rock nature. The
song deals with hating your job, but not being able to find
anything that pays well enough (“More money makes a
dent, but I’m not happy just paying rent,” declares
the chorus) and doing what you love just doesn’t pay.
The grunge-like hit of the LP is “Weird Winter,”
a song of self-loathing that has a big gang-vocal chorus of
“I am not your hero, I’ll never be.” The
verses deal with the paralysis one can feel, the struggle
between wanting to be with people and to just be alone, and
ending up lying in bed, letting yourself rot away. Themes
of isolation continue on the spoken word piece, “Isolation
By Design.” As an acoustic guitar plays quietly, a narrator
talks about the loneliness we all feel as we isolate ourselves,
even in a city as dense as New York, “It’s isolation
by design, to be surrounded by water, but dying of thirst,”
we’re told. “There Are Heroes In You” seems
to speak about being overly dependent on another person. “You’re
my home, you’re the only reason I am here,” the
song says. “We’re waiting for heroes, there are
heroes in you.” I love how the song starts out more
quietly in waltz time, then a about two thirds through, it
changes completely into a very dark, driving song in a 4/4
rhythm, the urgency palpable. I could continue talking about
each track and how good they are – because every track
is really that good. Every time I think I’ve picked
one favorite, another plays and I have to reevaluate. The
songs are inventive, original, very engaging, and varied.
This record is very recommended!
 CATHOLIC
GUILT – This Is What Honesty Sounds Like (Wiretap
Records, www.wiretaprecords.com)
Melbourne, Australia band Catholic Guilt are seeing American
release of their new EP via Southern California’s Wiretap
Records. The five-piece play big, expansive pop punk and emo
inspired music, similar in ways to what was being made in
the 2000s. There’s an epic quality these songs, and
the songs pack an emotional wallop. The opening track, “A
Boutique Affair,” is the lead single, and it ranges
from poppy indie rock to emo pop. The harmonized vocals are
very slick, with a commercial radio appeal. “Song of
the Renter” has a dusty western folk-punk feel to it,
with lyrics that seem to be about the greed of redevelopers
and land speculators, and the damage they do to the ability
of too many people to have an affordable place to live. “Life
In Three Part Harmony” lives its name. It also starts
quietly, and builds steadily. Just as life does. And “The
Awful Truth” has a jazzy swing and swagger to it, but
is just as big and emotional as the other tracks. “Nothing”
is the closer, and it has an anthemic quality to it, for a
big and strong finish. Catholic Guilt certainly are good at
what they do. If you enjoy this big emo style, you’re
going to love this EP.
 KID
DAD – In a Box (Long Branch Records, longbranchrecords.bigcartel.com)
On this debut LP from German band Kid Dad, are echoes of 1990s
Seattle mixed with modern dreaminess. This is slickly produced
alternative rock, with big dynamics and big production values.
The opening track, “A Prison Unseen,” is epic
in scale, with loud heavy guitars and shimmering keyboards.
Marius Vieth’s vocals are belted out powerfully, and
when the band pulls back we get quiet confidence. “Happy”
is straight up grunge, and the heaviest, hardest-hitting song
of the LP. The licks on the chorus sound oh so familiar, as
if Kurt Cobain himself could have written them. The heavy
reverb in the guitar on the quieter parts is cool, giving
those parts of the song a darker eerie feel. There are plenty
of songs in the vein of “(I Wish I Was) On Fire,”
a track that feels like it came from the 2000s. Melodic and
rocking, yet dreamy, and loaded with emotion, it’s the
kind of thing the alternative radio was full of back in the
day. Vieth’s vocals range from angst-filled to breathy,
echoing the big dynamic range of the instrumentals. If you
like this genre, Kid Dad acquit themselves quite well.
 LASSE
PASSAGE – Sunwards (Sofa Music, www.sofamusic.no)
Lasse Passage plays light, jazzy folk-pop. If you think you
hear a slight accent to his rich vocals, you’re right;
Passage hails from Norway. The opening track, “Miles
Away,” is my favorite of the LP. It starts out with
gorgeously dark, fluttery acoustic guitar and vocals. It’s
really beautiful singer-songwriter fare. The song starts to
get a little thicker with flute and synths, and then drums
join in and the folk turns to pop for a bit, before returning
to the fluttery guitar. I like the breeziness of “Heartbeat.”
It’s got an interesting blend of feelings; I get a sunny
beach day mixed with some rural Americana, with slide guitar
and horns in the arrangement. “Homecoming” is
a perfect exemplar of the majority of the songs on this LP.
It’s folksy pop music with a jazzy beat and horns in
the arrangement. “Sunwards” is another one on
the jazzier side of things, a nice bouncy beat, trumpet, a
light touch, and even whistling at the end. And I also love
“300.000 Francs,” a pretty song of memories, romantic
and otherwise. It’s a wistful tune, quiet and sad, full
of loss. The mix of acoustic guitar, piano, and brushed drums
is beautiful, and Passage’s vocals have a delicate touch.
The overall feel of the album is quite airy and weightless,
and listening to this record can help ease your burdens.
 ODD
ROBOT – A Late Night Quarantiniac (youtube.com/channel/
UCi3ifreFPcx9hgbAYCTOvJQ)
Odd Robot has decided to self-release acoustic versions of
some of their songs from their first two LPs, and their split
with Tiny Stills, plus a new one, as a digital only release,
available on Spotify and YouTube. And wow, the songs sound
completely different this way! Part of it is the acoustic
treatment, but more of it is a conscious decision on the part
of the robots to slow things down, take it easy, and not be
in such a manic rush. One of the best examples of this is
“Amnesiatic.” The original is raucous and loud,
if not speedy. The acoustic version is soft and solemn, just
the acoustic guitar and Andy Burris’ vocals, as pleading
and melodic as ever, though the emotive quality of his vocals
comes through even more clearly here. “Take Me Away”
transforms from an edgy pop punk anthem, with driving bass
and pounding drums, into an impassioned waltz time ballad.
On the “Amnesiatic” LP, the opening track, “Sell
Your Soul” is pounding pop punk song, but here it’s
delicate, with acoustic guitar and distant “percussion”
from what I think are hand claps. “I Am a Cortisol Factory”
is no longer the high-strung indie rocker of the track on
the split EP; instead it has some exquisite flamenco guitar
sounds and a much easier feel. “Boil Through”
undergoes a big change from poppy grunge rock and roll to
dusty western folk. My favorite Odd Robot song, “Green
and Yellow Wires” (which they never play live) is my
favorite of this acoustic LP, too. The part that hits me hardest
is the dueling guitars in the opening, something that is used
sparingly in the electric version. Here in the acoustic version
those guitars keep at each other throughout most of the song.
They’re lighter, too, and the song is slowed down and
becomes the romantic ballad it was always meant to be. The
new one is the country-like “Bartender’s Blues”
and it reminds me of some of the Chicago singer-songwriter
music I group up with, like Steve Goodman. The closer is “Knife
and a Cigarette,” from the debut LP “A Late Night
Panic.” Here, along with the acoustic guitar we get
bowed bass and violin, and it is achingly beautiful. Though
all but one of these tracks are previously released on other
records, this is a fresh, brand new LP that sounds like no
other Odd Robot record, and like their others, it’s
wonderful.
 SHEENJEK
– Unclever (Seventh Rule Recordings, www.seventhrule.com)
I’m not a big metal fan, and I usually don’t go
in for the really heavy stuff. But every once in awhile, a
heavy metallic band comes along that breaks all the “rules”
and makes music that I can really get into. Portland’s
Sheenjek is one such band. The music is definitely heavy,
hard-hitting stuff, but it’s also melodic, with strong
post-punk leanings. The band claims to have started as a book
club in their humorous press release, and that quickly disintegrated
into a demonstration of self-defense knife techniques and
joint rolling techniques. Too much booze, too much weed, and
too many books led to an extended drum solo that became the
band’s first live performance. Ha! “Monkey Brains”
is a bombastic track with some cool angular guitar lines that
remind me of some of the great post-hardcore post-emo stuff
from the 90s, and the track may be my favorite of the bunch.
It’s a little slower, but it’s loaded with tension
and sludgy bass. Magazine’s 1978 post-punk classic “The
Light Pours Out of Me” was famously covered by Ministry
in 2003, with a reasonably faithful and un-Ministry-like rendition.
Now Sheenjek is covering it, slowing it ever so slightly,
and sludging it up a lot. The angularity of the next song
title, “If Not Why Not If So How” reflects the
bit of angularity in the melody. It’s another that harkens
back to 90s post-hardcore and early emo, before emo turned
to screamo. I love the organized chaos in this one toward
the end, with the instruments all seeming to be playing different
dissonant lines, yet they all gel together into a coherent
whole. “Lazy Boy” changes character three quarters
of the way through. It starts out as just another heavy metallic
grungy sludgy song, with metallic guitar jammage. But with
just over two minutes remaining on the clock it complete changes
to an urgent melodic punk edged rocker with hints of DC emo
buried beneath the layers of noise. You can hear it in the
way the vocals are shouted out and the soaring sound of the
guitars. “Damocles” definitely shows its metal
roots, but it’s got some definite jangle going on here
and there. The closing track is “Bootlikker,”
and it’s where the band really shines. There’s
so much going on in this track, from the quiet opening notes
to the slow slushy intro, and then the gritty post-hardcore,
with an intense wall of sound. When the rhythms start getting
all mathish, it may leave your head spinning. The song keeps
shifting all over the place, and it’s a fascinating
listen. There are precious few heavy bands I’ll go out
of my way to see, Now I have one more, whenever live music
starts again, and should Sheenjek decide to come down the
coast.
 SLIGHT
OF – Other People (Dadstache Records, www.dadstacherecords.com)
Slight Of is an ever evolving collective of musicians centered
on the songs of New Yorker Jim Hill. The songs are unabashed
glam and power pop. Guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards make
up the instrumentation, and it’s interesting how the
different keyboard sounds dramatically change the feel of
the songs; sometimes they’re new wave bubblegum pop,
sometimes they’re more rock and roll, and sometimes
they have a dreamy sound. For example, the opening track,
“The Sims,” has buzzy poppy synths that dominate
the sugary sweet pop sound. The lyrics are less bubbly than
the music, referencing spending all night playing the titular
video game, wasting time “on a world that doesn’t
even exist. It may be an allegory for chasing unachievable
dreams, which would be pretty depressing. “Other People”
goes dark 80s rock and roll, with jangle reverb-laden guitars
and a warm organ tone, and lyrics about a relationship stuck
in a rut and gone cold, with thoughts drifting to the other
people in our lives. “Americana” has a vaguely,
well, Americana feel, and the vocals on the verses remind
me ever so slightly of Current 93’s David Tibet, half
sung, half spoken, with dismal lyrics. The song is about the
desperation of so many in America, how our lives never turn
out to be what we want or what the American Dream is supposed
to have promised. I like “Townie 490,” which sounds
like something Elvis Costello might have written, with a nice
power pop sound.
I’m not normally a big fan of the slower ballads,
but ironically my favorite tracks on this LP are such songs.
“Winter’s Maze” is a chilling song of
becoming inured to and feeling stuck in a toxic relationship.
“Oh what you do to me / You know it hurts so gracefully
/ These aching bones have come to know / The bruise that
makes them feel at home,” says one verse. The music
is spare and lonely sounding, with ethereal synths and bluesy
guitar. “Oh what you give to me / You take it so easily,”
another verse declares, as the music builds. “And
it feels like new when you walk in the room / If it were
warmer / Maybe I’d have the sense to leave.”
The song sends shivers through my soul. And “Hall
of Songs,” the penultimate track of the album, has
a sort of unearthly version of a 50s doo-wop ballad, a heavenly
choir providing backing vocals.
This sophomore release from Slight Of has some real downer
lyrics, man, but some of these songs are pretty cathartic.
This is the real emo, buddy.
 BENCHMARKS
– Summer, Slowly (benchmarks.bandcamp.com)
You would think that Benchmarks, hailing from Nashville, would
focus on country-tinged music, or at least “Americana”
influenced alternative rock. But they remind me more of a
cross between Austin, Texas band Big Loser (formerly known
as Free Kittens and Bread) and Divided Heaven (formerly of
Los Angeles, now calling the East Coast home). The music has
the emotional content of Divided Heaven, and the indie-nerd
song writing of Big Loser. The production is pretty slickly
done, the band is super tight, and the musicianship is stellar.
The overall feel is indie rock, but several of the songs are
definitely punk influenced. I like “Cicada Year, Pt.
1,” with its big rhythm guitars and strutting bass line,
and the lyrics that refer to how we enjoy the summer, never
giving a thought to the coming of winter, a reference to youthful
exuberance without a care of what will happen as we age. And
“Our Finest Hour” is a very timely song, about
how those of us born into privilege but committed to real
change for the better need to move back from trying to lead
and allow those most impacted by injustice to do so. We need
to listen, learn, and support the change that will bring about
a better society. It has big punk influenced guitars and some
great whoa-oh backing vocals. “The Price of Postcards”
is a pretty raucous one that I like, and the lyrics are one
of the inevitable tour songs – being away from home,
traveling from place to place, how everything is the same
but different everywhere – and missing the one you love.
When the song calms, there’s an organ that comes in
and gives a nice warm feel that’s not out of place,
as the lyrics referencing dreams of what will be when you
get home. The guitar solo, though, could be dropped as superfluous,
and the guitar wizardry thrown in at the end feels extraneous
and boastful. Another tour song makes an appearance, “Leave
the Light On.” This one is about growing weary of the
rut of touring, and planning to leave it all and go home.
It’s got one of the punkier feels, too, but also another
unnecessary guitar solo. And the arrangement of “Technicolor”
reminds me a lot of Big Loser, with the opening just being
guitar and vocals, before the whole band comes in, and then
revisiting that contrast throughout the song. “The Good
Fight reminds me a lot of Divided Heaven – the vocals
have some of that band’s vocalist Jeff Berman’s
sound. Sometimes the production goes a bit overboard, like
the use of “atmospheric” synths and guitar solos
on “Six One Way” and other songs. It ends up feeling
too slick and less honest. I think that’s what bums
me about all the guitar solos. They sound inauthentic and
don’t add to otherwise good songs. The closer is “Cicada
Year, Pt. 2,” and it picks up the theme from part one,
but this time it’s a song of acceptance instead of denial.
“Summer into autumn slips / let me embrace this transformation,
and embrace the life I own / and cherish all these songs upon
my lips.” Not just accepting aging and change, but embracing
it. Good advice for us all.
 DEVON
KAY AND THE SOLUTIONS – Limited Joy (A-F Records,
www.a-frecords.com)
You may be most familiar with Devon Kay from his role in the
band Direct Hit! but Devon has, for years, fronted his own
band, too. On this latest LP the band eschews the pop punk
of its past and has evolved to a bigger sound grounded in
ska punk. Yes, ska punk. The band is bigger, adding a trumpet
and trombone, plus synths. The songwriting is bigger, too,
to take advantage of all these new instruments. You’ve
possibly heard some of the singles they’ve been rolling
out in advance of the LP release, so you know what I mean.
The opening track was the most recent single, “Oh Glorious
Nothing,” and it’s a pretty glorious track, actually.
The glorious nothing referred to is oblivion, as in death,
and the song seems to be about the search for something, anything,
that can make you feel alive, but never finding it, and finding
solace in the end. The music is big, with horns and synths
providing a full sound, at one point with the horns and synths
sounding almost like a baroque ensemble. The other single
that was released ahead of the LP comes next, “Anything
At All,” and it has the same ska punk sound and a wonderfully
elaborate arrangement. There is a short time when the music
and the vocals get aggro, but it’s way too short. “252
Brighton Ave.” was previously released, as well, and
it has a vaguely Celtic rock feel that I like, as if The Pogues
decided to add a ska element to their songs. The horns in
this one are just gorgeous.
The first song of the LP not released ahead of the album,
“One Horse,” is a straight up pop song, with
processed vocals and heavy synths. The horns are still there,
seeming oddly out of place, but the lyrics are in line with
other songs. I hear references to time slipping away, and
Kay’s declaration “I don’t wanna be here,
I don’t wanna be alone.” This is one I could
almost hear breaking through to commercial success, if given
the opportunity. I like “In a Prairie State,”
which has the feel of a rock and roll song mixed with ska
– ska-rock instead of ska-punk? “Evermore”
takes the band in more of an indie direction, with a smooth
sound. The arrangement is complex with synths, guitars,
and horns playing interweaving lines. “His & Hearse”
is a big, fun sing-along, and the sound gets beautifully
thick. The closer is “Less Talk, Less Rock,”
and it reminds me of what PUP might sound like if they slowed
down a bit and added horns. The band are creating some wonderfully
involved arrangements that really make these songs stand
out. People who are expecting this band to stay stagnant
and keep playing the same old pop punk may be disappointed,
but if you like good music and are open to more than just
guitar, bass, and drums arrangements, prepare for a good
time.
 EXPERT
TIMING – Whichever, Whatever (Count Your Lucky Stars
Records, countyourluckystars.limitedrun.com)
Expert Timing are seem like two bands in one, which unite
on the final track of this new five-song EP. Two of the songs
that are sung mainly by bassist Katrina Snyder are lovely
indie pop. Two of the songs that are sung mainly by guitarist
Jeff Snyder are a bit grungier, definitely more indie rock
and outside the pop realm. I do tend to like the indie-pop
songs better. “Gravity” is a song of anxiety in
trying to plan life, but its unpredictability gets in the
way of that. Katrina’s vocals are pretty, and I like
the off-kilter rhythms that reflect the odd turns life can
take. I also like her song “Constant Melody,”
another pretty indie popper, this time with a smoother feel.
Of Jeff’s two songs, “Good Things” is a
downer of a song about how “Good things just don’t
just happen to me.” The mood of the music does feel
a little lighter than the lyrics would imply, especially when
the full band is playing – it’s a bit darker in
the intro, when it’s mainly the bass playing a very
Seattle line. And “Luckin’ Out” is even
more a descendant of the Pacific Northwest music scene. The
closing song, “My Body,” unites these two disparate
styles, melding Katrina’s pop side and Jeff’s
grunge. We get the dark grungy guitars and bass, but the lightness
of Katrina’s vocals and the start-stop melodic lines
of her songs. The song is also probably the most lyrically
important, on the topic of a woman’s right to control
her own body. An interesting dichotomy comes together.
 L.A.
WITCH – Play With Fire (Suicide Squeeze Records, www.suicidesqueeze.net)
It’s cool that I just watched the Go Go’s documentary
on Showtime last night, and today I’m listening to L.A.
Witch. Not that this trio sound like the quintet that was
popular back in the 80s and helped drive MTV success. But
it’s that the Go Go’s were groundbreaking in that
they were all women who played their own instruments and wrote
their own songs, something unheard of back then. So many bands
have followed their lead and they are some great bands out
there now that wouldn’t have had a chance at success
without the Go Go’s. And, though we know L.A. Witch
are all women, what do they sound like if they aren’t
the pop music of their progenitors? This is dark garage power
pop, emphasis on the dark. There is heavy use of reverb, and
the vocals are relaxed to the point of sounding “under
the influence.” I hear psych and surf in the guitars,
and the keyboards provide a strong retro psych feel. “Dark
Horse” is a favorite, with its 6/8 meter, acoustic guitar,
and lighter touch. The organ gives it a strong warm retro
psych feel, like this is something out of the 60s peace and
love era. The vocals are dreamy and the whole song has a hazy
drugged feel. Past the halfway mark it changes to a 4/4 beat
for a bit and we get some guitar jamming going on. The opening
track, too, “Fire Starter,” has a mix of garage
psych, and surf, the soundtrack you might hear after taking
a downer and washing it down with a few shots of whiskey,
a smoky haze hanging overhead. I know it’s odd to keep
harping on this, but the songs on this LP would be the perfect
soundtrack for a movie with drug use scenes from the 60s and
70s. That’s a compliment – this is cool stuff.
 LEWIS
– Son On The Floor (Sona Baby Records, www.sonababyrecords.com)
Lewis is Christopher Lewis, formerly of the punk band Kinison.
This guy does it all – he writes the songs, he sings,
and he plays all the instruments. The music ranges from the
straight-ahead power pop of “She’s Fine”
to the grunge-lite of “Bathe Clean” and “Nervous
Too,” from the smooth indie rock of “What We Give”
to the sparkling psych pop of “Pargana.” “Settle
Down” is a driving rock and roll tune in a classic 70s
vein. The opening track, “TOBI,” has dark sound
to it, alternating between jangly pop on the verses and grunge-lite
during the chorus. It’s got an epic theatrical quality
to it that makes it one of my favorites of the album. That
glam-like power pop song, “She’s Fine,”
is another favorite. It brings up images of late 70s rock
and roll classics “blasting” through the little
transistor radio I had as a kid. “Pargana” is
not only sparkling psych pop, it’s big and sprawling,
especially that huge chorus. The acoustic guitar adds a nice
element to the song, giving it a bit of intimacy amidst the
massiveness of the song. The songs on this record are varied
enough to keep from getting stale, yet cohesive enough to
recognize they’re all from the same band.
 THE
SEWER RATS – Magic Summer (ProRawk Records, www.prorawkrecords.com)
The Sewer Rats are a German pop punk band seeing a US record
release, and a case of a European band that sounds very much
like a US pop punk band. The songs range from skate punk top
Ramones-core, with a strong Fat Wreck influence. The songs
are silly fun-punk, too, in the vein of bands like Teenage
Bottlerocket. There are songs like “I’m Quitting
My Job,” which has lyrics mostly repeating that title
phrase, then talks about going on tour. The band likes to
sing about what they don’t want to do, too. “Don’t
Wanna Go to the Dentist” is a skate punk track with
plenty of whoa-ohs and lyrics about the fear of dentists,
while “I Don’t Wanna Go to the Shrink No More”
is pure Ramones-core about the downside of seeing a therapist.
The aversion to going places gets especially desperate on
“Don’t Wanna Leave My Room No More,” a Green
Day influenced track with a mid-tempo lope and sad depressing
lyrics. I like the opening track, too, “Rejuvenate,”
about staying young in mind and deed – “It’s
time to rejuvenate! / Grab your board, let’s go skate!”
the song commands, after a found sound bite that states “Yes,
growing up is a problem.” The music is speedy, poppy,
bouncy and fun. There’s the requisite “love”
songs, “My Sweet Chun-Li” and “My Baby Is
at Groezrock (and I Am Not),” the latter a reference
to one of Europe’s major punk festivals. Look, The Sewer
Rats aren’t breaking any new ground here, and they aren’t
making any political statements. But the music is bouncy and
fun and they do a great job of it. You don’t go see
TBR or Masked Intruder for profundities, either, do you? A
nice release for the hot, magic summer (though this summer
seems to be cursed by black magic).
 SINGING
LUNGS – Phone From Car (Count Your Lucky Stars Records,
countyourluckystars.limitedrun.com)
Utilizing recordings techniques developed for the pandemic
lockdown, this EP was recorded entirely on band members’
iPhones, the resulting files passed around and mixed together.
The negative is that the result doesn’t sound nearly
as clean as something recorded in a studio. The positive is
that it allows Singing Lungs to get new music released. We
get four new songs of 90s style indie-punk, guitars jangling
furiously as the vocals are belted out with angsty emotion.
The songs are poppy without coming across as sappy or bubblegum.
My favorite is probably the simplest of the record, “Present
Tense.” It’s also the poppiest, and completely
lacking any pretension – it’s just a bouncy fun
one. “Come Down Hard” is a little more indie crossed
with power pop, and it’s got a bit of a hard edge to
it. The least successful song, in my opinion, is the closer,
“Walking and Crawling.” It’s the most different
from the others, trying to be sort of an indie ballad. I think
Singing Lungs works better when they’re rocking out
with a good edgy pop tune.
 SWALLOW’S
ROSE – Live, Love, Hate, and Hope (ProRawk Records,
www.prorawkrecords.com)
ProRawk is bringing European pop punk to America! Swallow’s
Rose is a German band, singing in English, and sounding like
they could have come from the West Coast of the United States.
The songs are uniformly uplifting, reminding me of Seattle’s
Success. There’s a thread of positivity throughout the
ten songs on this LP, and a big, glorious sound. The title
track opens the LP, and is a perfect introduction to the band
and their sound. Harmonized vocals, rapid tempo, big guitars,
and plenty of opportunities for the crowd to sing along are
here. I also really like “When We Were Kings.”
It’s got more than a bit of street punk sound and huge
gang vocals, bringing another Seattle band to mind, The Drowns
(which makes sense, since that band shares members with Success).
And “Our Song” is another favorite, with a strong
West Cost pop punk sound. Some of the songs stray from pop
punk into skate punk sounds, like “We Are Not Dead,”
a track that focuses on power and speed, taking more queues
from the Epitaph sound of bands like Bad Religion than from
pop punk. This song has a darker edge, too, like a lot of
skate punk. “Guns & Pain” blends skate punk
and hints of street punk and even a bit of a ska beat, big
vocals on the chorus and a dark edge. And the closer, “Promises,”
is a mix of dark skate punk and big whoa-oh pop punk vocals.
It always gets me when I hear European bands play a style
that I thought was so unique to a particular region in the
US. The world is, indeed, getting smaller, and we’re
all part of one community. Swallow’s Rose are showing
they are model citizens of our community.
 BELLHEAD
– Unicorn Bones (bellhead.bandcamp.com)
Bellhead is a unique duo, consisting of two basses and a drum
machine. Karen Righeimer plays the “low bass”
and sings, while Ivan Russia plays the “high bass,”
sings, and operates the drum machine. The music is post punk
melded with classic Chicago industrial dance “Wax Trax”
sounds. The opening track even channels a bit of Jello Biafra.
That song, “Snuff Film 1974,” is easily the darkest
of the quintet of tracks, about a snuff film in which a leather-clad
man murders a little girl, and the narrator is horrified,
declaring he doesn’t want to watch, but he never stops.
The basses growl viciously, and the drum machine pounds mercilessly,
some eerie electronic effects adding to the atmosphere. “Always
(Running After the Sun)” has a real retro 80s pop sound,
too, quieter, with the high bass and piano playing the melodic
lines with a far-away sound. I like the line in the lyrics
that says “Who says love is a victimless crime?”
in this love song about chasing after the one you want. Another
super dark one is the industrial “Knife.” “You
look so pretty. Under the dead lights / You won’t look
so pretty, when you feel my knife.” The bass grinds
and pounds with the drum machine, and noise effects swirl
through reverb during this sinister song of evil intent. Though
there are definite echoes of past genres in this EP, in today’s
musical environment it sounds fresh and unique, so different
from anything else being made today.
 ERA
BLEAK (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
The band’s name is perfect for our times, as this era
certainly is bleak. As band member Zach Brooks put it, "The
year is 2020 and we are living in a 1980s punk dystopian sci-fi
novel. A pandemic is raging. When we are not donning masks
to go out in public, we have nothing to do besides smoke legal
weed out of electronic cigarettes and lose ourselves in disinformation.
The president of the United States is Jello Biafra's worst
nightmare... a buffoon so grotesque we would have had a hard
time believing the character was realistic had our current
reality actually been a 1980s punk dystopian sci-fi novel.”
And as the opening track, from which the band takes their
name, states, “Things get shittier every week / No hope
for the future in this era bleak.” The music matches
the sentiment, too, with a spare, austere sound. The instrumentation
is thin, the vocals belted out in a way that’s part
spoken word, part singing, and the whole thing feels like
the soundtrack to a desolate post apocalyptic punk rock world.
Sometimes the guitars have an interesting surf sound, like
on “MRI,” one of my favorites of the LP. It’s
a twisted sort of surf sound, though, like trying to surf
a wave of dirt and trash in the ruins of a major city. “Option”
has an urgent feel to it, with the bass driving things hard
and the tempo picked up somewhat. It’s about the “panic
stricken overload” we can get when faced with too many
options in our modern consumer society. “Robot”
has a cool mechanical rhythm and guitar line, with lyrics
that are a call out to people who have no originality and
obey the dictates of society like robots. Even with the minimalist
instrumentation, Era Bleak manages to have the energy of an
80s hardcore band, and the combination of hardcore and sparseness
make for an interesting sound. Era Bleak is the soundtrack
of today.
 DRUG
COUPLE – Choose Your Own Apocalypse (PaperCup Music,
www.papercupmusic.com)
Drug Couple, the real-life couple of Becca and Miles Robinson,
began writing the songs for this, their sophomore EP, back
in 2016, when Donald Trump was campaigning and elected to
be president. The decided to focus on songs about what they
felt would be the coming apocalypse, though they did not now
how prescient they would be, with a global pandemic, protests
for equal rights and justice for racial minorities, and the
growing divide in this country, politically and socially,
leading 2020 to be a violent disaster of a year. The six songs
on the EP generally deal with falling in love during an apocalypse,
and holding onto that love tightly in the worst of times.
The opening track, “2027,” tells the story of
ghosts hanging out in New York City, seven years after the
apocalypse. I love how the song “No Legged Dog”
is a blend of bouncy melodic pop and noisy gritty rock. The
contrast between the fuzzed guitars and the bright keyboards,
between the pounding percussion and the boisterous melodies,
the urgent rhythms and relaxed vocals, is pretty marvelous.
A favorite track is “Bottomless,” and it’s
one of the most different from the others, with less noise,
a slower tempo, clear, sad vocals, and guitars that wobble
like they’re underwater. The title refers to love as
a bottomless pit, yet “I’ll love you more.”
“The Ghost” trades the guitar focus for percussion,
keyboards, and front and center vocals. This pretty one shimmers
and glimmers. This is pretty good stuff.
 FAIR
VISIONS – A Way Out (fairvisions.bandcamp.com)
Channeling bits of OMD, David Bowie and New Order, synth pop
purveyor Fair Visions offer up six songs of synth-driven new
wave/post punk pop on their debut EP. The creation of Ryan
Work, Fair Visions evokes the 80s with their darkly jangling
pop songs. “Feels Right” reflects on Work’s
move to New York City, with lyrics about feeling at home in
a new place, like it was not just meant to be, it was always
this way. The bass heavy song nevertheless has a distinct
pop feel and danceable rhythm. I like the contrasts in the
song, “Lay Out In the Sun.” Especially in the
first verse, the heavy synths and breezy vocals and acoustic
guitar play off nicely against each other, as the lyrics contrast
the idea of doing nothing but laying out in the sun with the
daily grind of eating, working, commuting, and repeating.
In the closing verse, lying out in the sun is used as a simile
for doing the things you want in life, rather than acting
out of obligation. “Oh don’t you want to lay out
in the sun? / And forget the things you left undone / You
see, you think, don’t act, regret, and repeat / Is it
too late too late to lay out in the sun?” The mechanical
rhythms, too, are a nice contrast to the freer guitars that
seem to swirl around. These songs are nice, but if I had one
suggestion it would be to vary the tone a bit. Using the same
synth tones on every song gets a bit overbearing.
 KICKED
IN THE TEETH – Death Adventure (Rare Vitamin Records,
rarevitaminrecords.bandcamp.com)
I hear a strong post-hardcore vibe here. Think bands like
Quicksand or Refused. This new 7” is being released
in conjunction with the first vinyl release of their debut
self-titled LP that came out late last year. “Dead Air”
is the A-side, and it’s very much heavy edgy post-hardcore,
yet there’s a strong melodic vein running through it.
The B-side is the title track, and it’s poppier, yet
still powerful and hard-hitting. Some of the melodic lines
even remind me of early Dischord hardcore. For that reason,
it’s my favorite of the two. But this band from Northwich,
a smallish town in the north of the UK, is now on my radar.
Good stuff.
 KILL
LINCOLN – Can’t Complain (Bad Time Records,
www.badtimerecords.com)
Do you like ska-punk? I’m talking all out pop-filled
punked out music with the joy and energy of ska, including
the horns. Then you’re going to love this DC band’s
latest LP. The music is uniformly bright and jumpy, and takes
the best aspects of sing-along pop punk and ska and mixes
them together. “Used Up” is a good one, with a
speedier tempo and some crunchy guitars. I like how many of
the songs could be easily rearranged to be straight-on pop
punk, and they would work just as well. It’s a sign
of solid songwriting how well these work. Listening to “Last
Ditch Denial” I can hear it in my mind without the horns,
and these songs work – but the horns add that bright
dimension. “Ignorance Is Bliss” is one that starts
as raging post hardcore, transforms to poppy ska punk, and
then goes into full-on ska. It showcases the breadth of these
musicians’ capabilities. “Confession Obsession”
is a favorite, too. It’s one of the quicker tracks,
and it moves easily between strong pop punk and all-out ska,
with some edgier post-hardcore parts. Speaking of edgier parts,
the opening of “Civil Surgery” is amazing, taking
pounding rock music and playing it with horns is genius. “Quarantine
Dream” is probably my favorite track of the LP; it rages
the hardest, but still maintains its bright pop bounce. The
horns do recede somewhat into the background on this one,
adding more of an aura of ska on this great pop punk track.
“Womb Envy” uses hardcore vocals over a skankin’
beat, and has a powerful metallic ending – with horns!
And the closer, “Can’t Complain,” has the
speediness and pop of a Pears track, though it has horns and
isn’t as hardcore. Do you like ska-punk? I normally
can take it or leave it, but Kill Lincoln does a fucking great
job with these songs.
 KNOWSO
– Specialtronics Green Vision (Drunken Sailor Records,
www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Well, they are from Ohio, after all, so the early Devo-like
mania makes sense. Angular melodic lines, guitar jabs, off-kilter
bass, and vocals that are spoken in unison mark the primary
sound from these Cleveland punk weirdoes. This stuff is so
different from just about any other music being made today
it’s like a shot in the arm to a stagnant music “industry.”
But just when you think you’ve got these oddballs figured
out, they throw a track like “Wrong Calculator”
at us. It’s a twisted spoken word piece about microbial
species with robotic “backing vocals” and dark
beeps and boops from synths and saxophones providing the “music.”
It’s from this track that the album takes its name,
as “green vision” and “blue vision”
and “specialtronics” are heard being spoken about.
“Green vision is two babies,” the robot voices
declare. And “Green vision is the first big step back”
according to the track’s narrator. Huh? Confusing and
comedic. “Peaceful and Extinct” is probably my
favorite of the LP, with a swingin’ vibe and some intense
sax noise interjections. This LP reminds me of some of the
awesome “out there” records that were being released
in the early to mid 80s, and is recommended if you’re
a weirdo, too.
 LIBRARIANS
WITH HICKEYS – Long Overdue (Big Stir Records, www.bigstirrecords.com)
I see what you did there with the album title… Librarians
With Hickeys took their time getting these songs recorded
and collected together for this, their debut album, so it
was, well, long overdue. For the most part, the dozen songs
on this LP are power pop, but with a light touch and just
a hint of psych. The opener, “Until There Was You,”
is a perfect example, with a mix of fuzzy and jangly guitars,
a quiet manner, but great pop hooks. I really like “Be
My Plus One,” the lovely delicate love song, and its
use of ukulele for a warm, twee sound, and the guest list
reference is a humorous touch. “Next Time” has
the sound of an 80s hit that could have been on MTV, halfway
between guitar driven power pop and dreamy new wave pop, sans
the synths, but with sax.
As pleasant as the front half of this album is, the back
half rules. Some of the songs are a little edgier, though
still smooth. There’s a heavier dose of psych in some
of them, and a little more power in the power pop. “Leave
Me Alone” cranks things up several notches with a
garage feel blended with psychedelic overtones. The effects
in the guitar tone are eerie and cool. “Poor Reception”
has some familiar sounding power pop hooks that grab me,
and it’s got a bridge that gets dark and goth-pop
sounding. “Looking For Home” uses piano to great
effect, with the guitars and organ providing a lonely sound,
but the piano a bright hopeful one. And I love the 80s Joy
Division/New Order meets Love and Rockets sound of “Silent
Stars.” Don’t end up paying a late fee –
get on this one now.
 PUBLIC
EYE – Music For Leisure (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Drunken Sailor had been on a noisy hardcore kick for a whole
bunch of its most recent releases, but their latest LP, from
Portland’s Public Eye, is the one of the most melodic
things I think I’ve ever heard from The Juice Man’s
DIY UK label. At first, given the sound of the band, I thought
they were a UK band, but no, they’re as American as
protesters being kidnapped in unmarked vans. With retro garage
pop instrumentals and droll nearly spoken word vocals, it
sounds like something that could have come from the intensely
creative post punk era of the late 70s and early 80s. The
guitars jangle as the vocals are belted out in a near deadpan,
everything just slightly lo-fi enough for the garage sound,
but not so lo-fi as to make these songs sound muddy. While
there isn’t a bad track on the LP, there are some standouts.
“Awful Questions” has a great mathish guitar hook
repeated over and over in the minimalist tradition, and it
rocks out quietly and subtly. “Neat Machines/Red Flags,”
has rhythmic changes giving a math-like feel, and repeating
minimalist lines, but this time there’s a smooth groove
going on, so almost a cool jazz kind of sound, during the
“Neat Machines” half of the track. “I Might
Go” uses its guitar licks and vocals to give the track
a sense of urgency, of the song being propelled forward. As
I said, I like every track here, but if I would have one criticism
is that there’s a little too much sameness from track
to track, but this is good stuff.
 THEE
DIRTY RATS – Humans Out (Mandinga Records, www.mandingarecords.bandcamp.com)
Post-garage duo Thee Dirty Rats, hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil,
channel the gritty nature of one of the world’s largest
cities on this LP chock full of lo-fi post-apocalyptic rock
and roll. The rhythms are raw and primal, the guitars noisy
as all fuck. Lo-fi is putting it mildly. And minimalism seems
to be second nature to these two. The arrangements are super-sparse,
with the DIY drums and guitar, plus vocals and a “broken”
Moog synth being all there is. The lyrics are also reflective
of a world gone mad, with songs like “Universe Is Caos,”
which has lyrics “The universe is chaos / Stop, you’re
making it worse” as the drums pound and the guitar picks
out a simple repetitive melodic line. The robotic nature of
the song is in direct opposition to the idea of chaos, which
is pretty interesting. “Let’s Fight” is
a little thicker in the guitar sounds, and is about, well,
wanting to fight. “Modern Disease” has a funky
bass feel to it, while “Oh Oh” has a great raucous
garage rock sound. “Maze of Love” has a bluesy
edge to it, “TDR Will Make Dirty For All Ya Girls And
Boys” is a too short fun track that channels early Beastie
Boys. “Headache” is the most melodic track of
the LP, but that’s not saying much for this minimalist
duo, since melody is not really their thing. The closer is
the brilliant “Stop That Dance,” which, despite
its thin arrangement, has a full feel. The contrasting vocals,
the mechanical factory beat, and the grating guitars all join
forces to create music for the future new stone age. This
record isn’t going to be for everyone, but after there’s
nothing left of the world or its societies, this is the music
that will be left. Drink it up and get used to it.
For more of Paul Silver's reviews, click here...
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