Stef Chura‘s been kicking around the local Detroit scene for some time now, gaining new levels of traction every year. Messes, Chura’s debut, caught the attention of Car Seat Headrest‘s Will Toledo, who signed on to produce the follow-up record. “They’ll Never” is a tantalizing new look at that record, which will see release via the inimitable Saddle Creek.
The song arrived with a music video directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker, showcasing Chura’s scrappy throwback aesthetic to perfection. Taking a series of cues from classic late ’80s to mid ’90s alternative clips, “They’ll Never” presents Chura in a grainy lo-fi 4:3, nicely accentuating the narrative’s emphasis on history. All told, “They’ll Never” is a very welcome jolt of casual energy that doubles as a reminder of Chura’s considerable talent. It’s worth remembering.
Watch “They’ll Never” below and pre-order Midnight from Saddle Creek here.
Post-punk that’s scrappy and really pissed off has been a sweet spot for this site in the past and the present is no different. Dumb‘s “Beef Hits” is another entry in our coverage of that particular chapter of music and even among its contemporaries, “Beef Hits” stands out. As is the case with the genre’s best, there’s a snarl that accompanies its gait, gifting another level of venom to its central stuck-in-nowhere-and-fed-up narrative. When the saxophone solo comes in to blow everything to smithereens at the track’s close, the effect comes close to catharsis. Despite their name, Dumb’s a band that’s exceptionally smart when it comes to their craft and in “Beef Hits”, it shows.
Listen to “Beef Hits” below and pre-order Club Nites here.
Adam Kolodny (of House of Nod) can’t seem to stop shooting extremely memorable visuals. The imagery in Better Oblivion Community Center‘s clip for “Dylan Thomas” borders on the iconic, the palette used in Charly Bliss‘ “Capacity” video has a strong shot at being a definitive landmark for that era of the band, and yet the DP may have bested both of those efforts with an unforgettable showing for Mannequin Pussy’s latest, “Drunk II”.
Mannequin Pussy‘s guitarist/vocalist (and the director of “Drunk II”), Marisa Dabice, was reported to have set one goal for the clip: to make it “look like the saddest dream.” In an open casting call, there was a need for “people comfortable making out on camera” and the arc of the direction, the song’s own narrative, and the stylistic flourishes throughout “Drunk II” tie together into what’s easily one of 2019’s best videos to date. Everything from the soft lighting to the marquee archway to the repeated returns to central framing with blurred edges (ostensibly playing into the narrator’s state of being) combine to create something indelible. In short, it’s a masterpiece delivered in a minor key. Hit repeat when it’s done.
Watch “Drunk II” below and pre-order Patience here.
Garrett Koloski‘s drumming never quite got the credit it was due back when it was transforming Perfect Pussy into a snarling powerhouse. There’s a level of precision in the chaotic immediacy of the work Koloski was doing behind the kit that not many drummers can match and that’s a trait that’s carried over to Empath, who continue to be on an absolute tear. Every song the band’s released has bested their previous work and “Hanging Out of Cars” and “Roses That Cry” now stand as an impressive pinnacle.
The latter of which is the band balancing its most playful pop sensibilities with its most vicious punk characteristics. Blown-out, catchy, and extraordinarily engaging, “Roses That Cry” approaches something transcendental as it swirls, seethes, and surges towards a punishing climax that rattles the bones. As everything deteriorates in the final seconds, there’s a stray laugh, offering an unlikely out from the blistering storm, topping off something that feels like it’s good for the soul.
Listen to “Roses That Cry” below and pre-order Active Listening: Night On Earth here.
2017’s Linger in the Afterlightsuggested Deliluh could be a legitimate force and the band’s only grown sharper since its release. Oath of Intent, judging solely on the considerable merit of its advance singles, may be a dark horse contender for Album of the Year honors. “Freeloader Feast” saw the band operating in rare form but their most recent glimpse at their forthcoming record, “Rabbit”, is an absolute monster.
Wiry post-punk that wrings tension from every exacting note, “Rabbit” is the kind of song that’ll keep most listeners in a vice-like grip. Ought‘s earlier work immediately springs to mind due to the dynamics and delivery but that band was never this dark or unforgiving. Deliluh have tapped into something special here and will undoubtedly be worth paying very close attention to in the coming months. Don’t skip out on this one.
Listen to “Rabbit” below and pre-order Oath of Intent from Telephone Explosion here.
Thin Lips have built a career out of challenging expectations and Carrot Milk continues that arc. Comprised of three tracks, Carrot Milk showcases the group’s burgeoning confidence in unexpected ways. From the opening minute of “Butterfield Road” it’s clear that Thin Lips are exercising a new level of restraint, which ultimately elevates the moments of catharsis. Everything on Carrot Milk is earned, including its own existence.
As a whole, it’s the sound of a band that’s taken control of their voice and realized that voice can be projected in different ways. Impressively, Carrot Milk winds up feeling more essential than experimental. Thin Lips is taking a brave step forward and unlocking more than a few enticing possibilities for their future in the process. One of 2019’s most heartening moments for a band that deserves all the success they can achieve.
Listen to Carrot Milk below and grab a name-your-price download here.
Last week saw the release of a handful of great songs and a few genuine standouts. Nightjacket’s shoegaze ripper “You’re Trying Too Hard” was one of those select cuts. Towering, cerebral, and impossibly lovely, “You’re Trying Too Hard” is classic shoegaze through-and-through, awash in reverb with heavenward guitar lines and syrupy vocals set against a backdrop of dreamy synths and a powerful rhythm section. Sharp edges and a tender center cement Nightjacket’s emergent status with the kind of effortless grace that informs their work. A triumph.
Listen to “You’re Trying Too Hard” below and pre-order Beauty in the Dark here.
Three weeks into April 2019 and the month’s yielded a staggering amount of good material and a small handful that’s genuinely great. Today, this site will feature the last of what has been a series of quartets: songs, music videos, and full streams. A wide range of genres and styles is on display and everything’s more than worthy of some serious listening and/or watching investment. Art this strong should always be featured in some capacity, as many times over as possible. Scroll down and enjoy the riches.
Patio – Essentials
Patio‘s potential has been evident since the evening they made their public debut at Palisades (RIP). Essentials, the band’s first full-length and second release following their excellent LuxuryEP, finds the trio paying off that promise with the conviction that’s always been present beneath their icy exterior. Detachment and post-punk tend to go hand in hand, which is why Essentials‘ willingness to embrace a no-frills directness feels exhilarating. Every move throughout the record feels considered, resulting in a level of precise articulation that many bands spend entire careers trying to match. There’s an exacting nature to both the narratives and the instrumentation Patio wields throughout the record, which finds the trio weaponizing their own restraint. Measured, deadly, and teeming with confidence, Essentials lives up to its name.
-,
Supermilk – Rare Delusions
Jake Popyura‘s made a few of the present decade’s best records as a member of Doe and adds to that winning streak with Supermilk‘s second EP, Rare Delusions. Popyura’s solo project had an enticing debut EP in Hello? Yes this is Supermilk… but Rare Delusions betters it in every aspect. Doe’s recent run has seen Popyura take a considerable artistic leap as a songwriter and that comes through in full on all four of Rare Delusions‘ tracks. Each track detonates and effectively captures a youthful energy that hits like an adrenaline rush. Angst, ennui, and clarification are leveraged into a surging momentum but Popyura never lets Rare Delusions fall apart after it flies off the rails, ensuring its place as one of 2019’s most galvanizing listens.
–
Nightwatchers – La Paix Ou Le Sable
La Paix Ou LeSable, Nightwatchers’ latest, is a snarling behemoth. Modern, pop-informed basement punk at its most vicious and unforgiving, La Paix Ou Le Sable is an unrelenting tidal wave of unchecked aggression funneled into some of the year’s hardest-hitting songs. An into track provides a moment of peace before the storm’s unleashed and the band really never lets up after that opening minute. Everything hits with a high degree of impact but, impressively, the cumulative effect never becomes desensitizing. A breathless declaration of intent from a band that seems hell-bent on making its presence count.
–
Bleary – Gates
The members of Bleary have been fixtures in Nashville’s local punk scene for some time, which helps explain how Gates sounds so monumentally assured. The band’s still a relatively new act, with only a three-track demo to their name. Gates, the band’s debut EP, is a head-spinning affair that announces the quartet’s arrival with the same clear-eyed determination that elevates the band’s music. Front to back, Gates is pure catharsis. Classic shoegaze gifted some contemporary twists, pitched in all the right keys, Bleary has crafted something that feels genuinely definitive. An extraordinary accomplishment that should find Bleary successfully searing their name into many new converts’ memories.
Three weeks into April 2019 and the month’s yielded a staggering amount of good material and a small handful that’s genuinely great. Today, this site will feature a quartet of songs, a quartet of music videos (with one being a unified collection), and a quartet of full streams. A wide range of genres and styles is on display and everything’s more than worthy of some serious listening and/or watching investment. Art this strong should always be featured in some capacity, as many times over as possible. Scroll down and enjoy the riches.
Charly Bliss – Hard to Believe
Charly Bliss have taken some serious gambles in the lead-up to the band’s forthcoming Never Enough. Each of the quartet’s first two singles from the record saw the band take a running leap into more pop-friendly territory, with both “Capacity” and “Chatroom” on the fringes of spectacle. Both of those songs received attention-grabbing music videos from emerging powerhouse directors Michelle Zauner and Maegan Houang. “Hard to Believe” — a recent highlight of the band’s notoriously energetic live show — finds Charly Bliss offering a bridge between Guppy‘s sugar-rush of punk sweat and Never Enough‘s outsize ambition, while the Henry Kaplan-directed music video scales back the conceptional narrative for one of the band’s best visual offerings to date. A practice, a marble (a winking reference to another of the band’s unreleased songs), some truly exceptional editing work, subtle B-horror references, and a might-be murderer all coalesce into one of the most pure distillations of joy that 2019’s offered to date.
–
Fanclub – Uppercut
Shannon Wiedemeyer takes the directorial reins on Fanclub’s appealingly dreamy “Uppercut” and balances the clip somewhere between John Hughes and Jean-Luc Godard, evoking iconic imagery from decades past with a studied eye that serves the clip well. “Uppercut” itself feels lost in time, which the video wisely accentuates. Soft, hazy, and aided by a noticeable but welcome touch of the romantic, “Uppercut” is a fittingly minor work worthy of its influences.
–
Spencer Radcliffe & Everyone Else – Here Comes the Snow
“Here Comes the Snow”, the latest single from Spencer Radcliffe & Everyone Else, feels as if its being lovingly haunted by Mark Linkous’ gentle spirit. Unassuming and low-key, the clip’s pitched perfectly by directors Dakota Sillyman and John TerEick, who play into the song’s restraint to produce something absorbing and undeniably tender. Soft transitions, low lighting, and paper snowflakes litter the video’s landscape, steadily placing the viewer directly by some imaginary fire’s cackle in a cozy cabin during the dead of winter. In the end, “Here Comes the Snow” winds up being less of a warning and more of an invitation, to a trip well worth taking.
–
thanks for coming – part i: you’re welcome
A video compilation that arrives ahead of thanks for coming‘s no problem (due out in July), part i: you’re welcome tackles the 24 track record’s first six songs. Each one of those songs gets a distinct visual treatment that’s unified by a staunchly DIY aesthetic. Grainy, lo-fi, and utterly charming, part i: you’re welcome is a glimpse towards a future that demands to be cherished, something subtly underscored by the evident nostalgia coursing throughout this video project. Each of the six clips is met with a different directorial vision but they all work in tandem to create an effect that feels fleet in the moment but lingers long after the final frame.
Three weeks into April 2019 and the month’s yielded a staggering amount of good material and a small handful that’s genuinely great. Tonight, this site will feature a quartet of songs, a quartet of music videos (with one being a unified collection), and a quartet of full streams. A wide range of genres and styles is on display and everything’s more than worthy of some serious listening and/or watching investment. Art this strong should always be featured in some capacity, as many times over as possible. Scroll down and enjoy the riches.
Yot Club – Japan
“Japan” is a perfect song for the changing weather, sun-speckled and carefree, Yot Club have crafted something that practically exudes summer. A lo-fi, slacker surf-pop monster, “Japan” features some exceedingly light digital affectations but makes its bones with a gift of a chorus that’s more infectious than anything else from the year so far. It’s a gift of a track from a band that’s bound to be turning heads as 2019 progresses.
–
Truth Club – Tethering
Coming on the heels of one of the year’s best singles in “Not An Exit”, Truth Club waste no time in proving that song’s strength wasn’t a fluke. “Tethering” is another triumph, mixing some of the best elements of the East Coast’s DIY-leaning punk scene over the past decade. A contemplative narrative, a handful of atmospheric riffs, and a palpable desire to feel and to hold onto that feeling. A genre masterclass that deftly combines shoegaze, post-punk, basement pop, and trace elements of reverb-addled psychedelia, Truth Club have offered another strong hint that they may be sitting on one of the year’s best albums.
–
SYBS – Paid Gofyn Pam
Every so often, a foreign language song will drift across the radar and tap directly into the sound that’s predominantly featured on these pages and SYBS’ “Paid Gofyn Pam” is firmly among their ranks. Welsh for ‘do not ask why’, “Paid Gofyn Pam” is a four minute basement pop treasure that sounds like it’d be right at home on a label like Salinas. Full of vibrant life, the song leans into its clean tones with conviction and transcends the translation barrier with ease.
–
Slow Pulp – High
“High” is yet another demonstration of how basement pop tendencies can inform and elevate shoegaze and vice versa. It’s a towering number with a slight run-time that finds Slow Pulp at the top of their game. Dreamy soundscapes and harsh feedback twist into an unlikely marriage, the discord and the harmony locked into codependency. Doubt remains a central theme to Slow Pulp’s characteristically engaging narratives but the music surrounding the sentiment has never been so powerfully assured. Keep both eyes on the band, who seem primed to make some very memorable noise.
Heartbreaking Bravery 