Review | Heartbreaking Bravery

July 28, 2016

Fern Mayo – Hex Signs (EP Review)

Fern Mayo VI

Full streams from Yours Are the Only Ears, Foozle, Izzy True, The Blue Mooners, Blesst Chest, Cool American, Heavy Drag, and Adam Remnant all found release over the past week and while all of them are worth multiple listens, it was Fern Mayo‘s new career highlight, Hex Signs, to grab this post’s featured spot.

Fern Mayo’s been in these pages quite a bit in the past, thanks to the happy forever EP, their solid live show, various members’ contributions to the A Year’s Worth of Memories series, and their sibling projects (Fits being a great recent example). However, everything always seems to tie back to Fern Mayo, who have been steadily improving as musicians and songwriters over the course of the past few years. Hex Signs, the trio’s latest effort, may only run three tracks but it hits with a staggering amount of force.

Kicking things off with “Pinesol”, the trio sounds reinvigorated, sharper and a lot more focused than they did only a year ago. Guitarist/vocalist and principal songwriter Katie Capri resumes the role of driving force and sets about creating enough momentum to transform into a red-hot wrecking ball, with Brian Orante’s drums and Nicholas Cummins’ bass urging her forward. It’s a reckless and occasionally euphoric track that ranks among the band’s finest work, allowing it to function as both a burst of searing adrenaline and a perfect introductory piece for the uninitiated.

“Pinesol” sets the tone for the two tracks to follow and neither feel out of place, continuing to propel Hex Signs forward with a near-manic sense of unchecked aggression. The EP’s longest track, “New Ketamine”, is perhaps the most representative of the band at large. A unified bridge between the band’s past and present work, the track navigates around several territories but never quite loses its sense of purpose, creating moments that touch on nearly every dynamic that’s been key to the band’s success in the process.

Closing Hex Signs out is “Moonshine Kingdom”, which has been a staple of the band’s live show for some time. Riding an insistent riff at a quick tempo, the song increases the EP’s velocity as it hurtles towards a massive climactic moment that contains just about enough energy to create a gravitational whirlwind. There are a small hosts of other miniature explosions to be found in that track that all lead up to those final exhilarating moments, giving the entire affair the feeling its stability could collapse at any second. It’s a thrilling finale to one of the most memorably vicious, off-kilter EP’s to have emerged from the basement pop (and basement punk) circuit this year. Cue the storm, ignore the tethers, and get carried away.

Listen to Hex Signs below and pick up a copy here. Watch an early live rendition of “Moonshine Kingdom” below the embedded bandcamp player.

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July 18, 2016

don’t – forget it (EP Review)

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July’s continued to bring out quality full streams in full force and the last few days of this week were no exception, bringing about worthy titles from Pre Nup, Yeesh, and The Saxophones as well as a Disposable America mixtape that’s directing all of the proceeds it earns towards the Pulse Tragedy Community Fund. As always, all of those titles should be more fully explored than time here allows and stand as highly recommended listens. Joining them in that regard is this post’s intended feature, the outstanding debut release from don’t, the cheekily-titled forget it.

Both the pop-punk and bedroom pop genres have been at their absolute best when they’ve proven to be subversive, opting out of merely imitating their expected beats. forget it succeeds in bridging the two genres by virtue of that type of subversion and becomes an unlikely standout in the process. In four short tracks, don’t offer up a variety of familiar points and then sets about demolishing their construction.

Whether it’s the synth that erupts at the chorus of “ambiguous” that transports the song into unexpected territory after a standard pop-punk build or the intense, sharp left forget it takes for its closing ballad, “your head”, that unexpectedly turns over the vocal lead and dramatically altars the momentum of the EP before exploding into a sort of euphoria, the band refuses to cater to an easy or predictable route.

Throughout it all, forget it remains deeply compelling not only by the virtue of its choices but in large part to the purity of the music it offers. Nearly every track’s narrative is populated and defined by some type of longing and elevated by its instrumental explorations. There’s not a moment on forget it that feels anything less than overwhelmingly honest and it draws a considerable amount of power from its sincerity.

In approximately 11 minutes, don’t go from being an unknown entity to one of 2016’s most exciting — and most promising — new acts. Don’t be surprised to see a quick succession of converts fiercely latching onto the band following this release or to hear their name come up in conversation a lot more readily. With a start this promising, it’s very easy to have a tremendous amount of hope for the future of music. Before that point hits, we should just be grateful to have been gifted such an incredible soundtrack for the ride.

Listen to forget it below and pick it up here.

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July 18, 2016

Yankee Bluff – I (EP Review)

Dogs On Acid II

To close out last week, a variety of great songs got released from the likes of Jeff Rosenstock, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Channels, YJY, Morgan Delt, Color Tongue, Pill, Multicult, Alphabetic, dreambeaches, and DYAN. While all of those tracks were certainly worthy of a great deal of attention, this featured spot goes to the surprise debut from Yankee Bluff, a band that was born out of the ashes of site favorites Dogs On Acid (pictured above), who announced both this new project and their end in a recent Facebook post.

While losing Dogs On Acid is tough to swallow, the sudden appearance of Yankee Bluff helps smooth out the transition. Helping matters even further is the fact that their debut EP, I, easily ranks as one of the format’s finest entries of the year. Beginning with “Agessi”, I demonstrates the songwriters’ increasing knack for nuanced basement pop and distances them even further from their emo roots.

Anchored by a compellingly battered production aesthetic, everything in I comes across as surprisingly grounded without sacrificing some towering pop-leaning hooks. As the EP progresses, a folk undercurrent slowly emerges, recalling some of Tenement‘s more Americana-informed works. By the time I hits its halfway point, Yankee Bluff have fully announced themselves as a democratic collective, allowing each member’s respective voice the opportunity to become distinctive, bringing their contemporaries in LVL UP to mind.

There aren’t any weak patches throughout the EP, with each song demonstrating a new angle that Yankee Bluff manages to successfully explore, a trait that will undoubtedly work to their advantage down the line. Whether they’re latched onto the near-anthems that Dogs On Acid cranked out a startling rate or the slow-burning acoustic act that defines the EP’s penultimate track, they also manage to cultivate a singular identity and establish themselves as a very serious force.

Ultimately, I stands as an unlikely — and unexpected — triumph. In the wake of losing one of the best bands of the past few years, we’ve been gifted a band that’s very capable of taking up the mantle. I is as good of a debut as anyone’s likely to hear this year and opens up the doors for even more impressive material in the coming years.

As Dogs On Acid recedes into the distance, it’ll be incredibly reassuring to have the privilege of watching their spiritual successor keep their flame alive and burning while forging an entirely new path. Even at the start of the party, there’s already an abundance of riches. Pick them up and hold them close, value them with the respect they deserve, and don’t make the mistake of letting them disappear without acknowledgement. After all, nothing lasts forever.

Listen to I below and pick it up here.

July 2, 2016

Cymbals Eat Guitars – 4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY) (Music Video)

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A lot can surface in two days time, like great new songs from the likes of Mozes and the Firstborn, R.L. Kelly, Snail Mail, Extra Medium Pony, Jordaan Mason, Rod, Joseph Coward, BADBADNOTGOOD (ft. Charlotte Wilson), The Saxophones, Alexa Wilding, Carl Broemel, Baby Girl, Amy Blaschke, and The Hell Yeah Babies. Even better when that crop can be rounded out by notable full streams from the camps of Flout, empath, Porcelain Raft, Omni, Phantom Posse, and The Rashita Joneses. Best of all is when that entire cumulative haul can be complemented by new music videos from Joanna Gruesome (who very nearly took this feature spot), Alice Bag, and Bent Knee.

As good as all of those above titles are, this post’s focus belongs solely to Cymbals Eat Guitars’ inspired “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)”, a song that immediately and effortlessly carves out a spot as one of this year’s finest. Elevating the song’s absurd individual strength is another in a respected list of clips that find a way to exploit the middle ground between music video and lyric video (a niche approach that was popularized by Bob Dylan’s iconic clip for “Subterranean Homesick Blues“). It’s a devilishly clever reflection of the song’s narrative; the song’s transparently informed by history and the visuals follow suit.

Following Warning, one of this decade’s stronger records (and a high-ranking pick for the Best Albums of 2014), the band unveiled the funk-tinged romp “Wish“, prompting some questions over the directional aim of the band’s forthcoming Pretty Years. In case anyone was concerned that the band had lost their penchant for soaring, aggressive, punk-indebted anthems, “4rh of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” can definitively put those worries to rest.

From its opening moments, “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” stakes a claim as the most blown-out, deep-in-the-red track of the band’s impressive career and the severely bruised aesthetic winds up propelling the song to a place of curious transcendence. The band digs their heels in deep for the track, which scans as one of their most personal — and most revealing — to date. Ostensibly about the events that guitarist/vocalist Joe D’Agostino experienced last fourth of July in some great company (including site favorite Alex G, hence the winking parenthetical in the title), the song actually gains momentum through its transparency and frankness.

Not only is “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” one of the finest narratives D’Agostino’s ever crafted, the band’s rarely sounded this overwhelmingly committed to creating something this vicious. The video embraces the song’s production aesthetic and places D’Agostino in various scenic locations, holding lyric cards and taking in his surroundings as a series of overwashed imagery — which looks like it was shot on actual film — creates a cohesive visual narrative that complements the lyrics nicely.

Literally everything the band throws at this video works on miraculous levels, congealing into an astonishing piece of art that ably demonstrates the depths of the band’s ambition. There’s a very real sense of world-building both in the lyrics and in the clip, which again plays to the seamless marriage of both sides of the spectrum in “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)”. D’Agostino’s lyricism has rarely been as vivid or as sharp as it is here and that’s really the crux of the song as well as its most effective engine. Sludgy, punishing, and boasting the most grit the band’s ever conjured up, Cymbals Eat Guitars go full tilt at everything at their disposal for this one and wind up with a breathtaking career highlight that demands a serious level of consideration as an unlikely classic.

Watch “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” below and pre-order Pretty Years from Sinderlyn here.

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July 1, 2016

Doe – Sincere (Stream)

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Heart Attack Man, Mild High Club, Wymond Miles, Pill, The High Curbs, Sannhet, TTNG, Uni Ika Ai, Mosquito Ego, and Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster were just a small handful of the acts responsible for some of the best songs to surface over the past two weeks. As always, each and every one of those songs are worth as many listens as they’re granted. A song that deserves all that and more also arrived, courtesy of site favorites Doe. The trio’s currently preparing to release their debut full-length — following a string of outstanding EP’s — entitled Some Things Last Longer Than You.

The record’s title is a nice reflection of the band; melancholic, tongue-in-cheek, and relatively straight-forward in its blunt honesty, which also ties into the record’s lead-off track, “Sincere”. Opening up with a steady, insistent mid-tempo drive, the song quickly bursts into the kind of catharsis the band’s been carefully perfecting attaining for several years. Guitarist/vocalist Nicola Leel (who penned an impassioned entry on recent accomplishments by influential women for the 2015 crop of A Year’s Worth of Memories) imbues “Sincere” with the kind of steely-eyed confidence that starts fires.

“Sincere” proves to be an incredibly apt title as the song ambles along, riding a fiendishly clever narrative that’s both forthright and sneakily reflective. There’s incendiary guitar work, a fully committed vocal performance, explosive dynamics, and a murderer’s row of hooks. Catchy, smart, subtle, and fiercely relatable, “Sincere” sets the tone for what could eventually become one of this year’s most celebrated and subversive basement pop records.

As an outpouring of energy, the song’s an immediate head-turner but as a complete song, it’s an absolute triumph. Easily one of the band’s finest works to date, “Sincere” is a very promising look towards the future. Should the rest of Some Things Last Longer Than You live up to the standard set by “Sincere”, we may not only have an Album of the Year contender on our hands but a stone-cold genre classic. In the meantime, the best thing to do is just keep this thing on repeat, screaming along with every syllable like it’s a declaration of solidarity, love, and unflinching support… then looping back around to do it all again.

Listen to “Sincere” below and pre-order Some Things Last Longer Than You from Old Flame here.

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July 1, 2016

Happy Diving – Holy Ground (Stream)

happy diving

Omni, Earth Girls, Vanity, Total Slacker, Eluvium, Navy Gangs, Skinny Blonde, Kindling, Few Bits, and Sleepy all released songs in the past two weeks that came incredibly close to being featured on this site. In the end, the featured spot for this post wound up going to a band that’s been featured here several times before: Happy Diving. Following up one of last year’s best 7″ records, the band’s started unveiling incredibly promising pieces of their forthcoming sophomore effort, Electric Soul Unity.

Most recently, they released the surprisingly gorgeous “Head Spell” — which easily could have claimed a feature spot of its own if there were more time — but the spotlight here falls to the first glimpse of the record they offered up to the public: “Holy Ground”. Clocking in at under two minutes, “Holy Ground” hits with all of the unrelenting force that defined their best work but also equips itself with a more nuanced finesse that nicely underpins the song’s more beautiful, if extremely damaged, aspects.

Soaring guitars, swirling feedback, an absolutely vicious rhythm section, and impassioned vocals constitute the foundation of “Holy Ground” and the band opts to not only embrace but emphasize those traits. Everything Happy Diving does exists happily in the red and they’ve figured out how to make that aesthetic beneficial to their compositions. Punishing, unapologetic, and oddly soothing, “Holy Ground” is the rallying cry of a band at the peak of their powers, warning anyone in earshot to either get out of the way or to fully commit to being trampled.

Listen to “Holy Ground” below and pre-order Electric Soul Unity from Topshelf here.

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July 1, 2016

Pope – Feels Like Home! (Stream)

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A lot of excellent tracks have surfaced over the past 12 days. Foozle, Touché Amoré, The Regrettes, Conveyor, Public Access TV, Soul Low, Garden Gate, Silent Pictures, Bill Eberle, and Hoops can all lay claim to contributing to the mix. While most of those tracks were attached to forthcoming releases, Pope went a different route and gave a one-off track entitled “Feels Like Home!” a surprise release.

Riding the wave of artistic success that was Fiction, the band’s most recent record, Pope escalate their ferocity and continue excelling at crafting high-impact songs that don’t cross the 100-second threshold. The band’s a possessed animal in the live setting and “Feels Like Home!” marks the closest they’ve ever come to capturing that scintillating determination. By continuing to play to their heaviest post-punk, basement pop, and shoegaze sensibilities with equal measure, the trio’s racking up an enviable discography.

In under 90 seconds, the band reasserts their dominance in breathtaking fashion and turns in one of their best songs to date. Fiery, propulsive, and absolutely enormous, “Feels Like Home!” is another exhilarating peak from a band that’s accustomed to breathtaking heights. With each successive release, Pope is inching ever closer to a surreal perfection within a very niche intersection of sub-genres, effortlessly carving out a position that will earn them praise, respect, and admiration. “Feels Like Home!” shows that the band might just be there already.

Listen to “Feels Like Home” below and pick the song up here.

July 1, 2016

Sat. Nite Duets – Tafka Salieri (Stream)

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Ours + Yours, Field Mouse, The Lees of Memory, Joanne Pollock, Lié, Halycine, MIYNT, Sunjacket, Year of Glad, and Katie Dey were just a handful of the artists responsible for the last haul of great songs. Each track had its own individual charms but the spotlight here belongs to the resurgent Sat. Nite Duets, who are preparing a legitimate Album of the Year contender in Air Guitar — their first effort for site favorites Father/Daughter — and leading off the record’s promotional campaign with “Tafka Salieri”.

For several years, the band’s been transforming themselves from an act visibly (and audibly) operating in Pavement’s shadow to one that’s cultivated a unique identity. While “Tafka Salieri” barely hints at the wide array of styles that run through Air Guitar, it does successfully re-introduce the band. While the Pavement influence can certainly still be heard, there’s a newfound confidence to the band’s composition and execution that benefits them well. Yes, “Tafka Salieri” still primarily operates in slacker pop but it updates it from the ’90s-mining that was so prominent in their past work to something that scans as refreshingly current (while still paying homage to some classic influences).

In one song, they set the tone for a record that’s primed to catch a whole host of people off guard and win over a whole new legion of converts. There’s a new depth of intelligence to the band’s songwriting that ably shows through “Tafka Salieri” and seems set to not only be sustained in the future but potentially even perfected. This is a song that’s perfect for solo summer drives, parties, after-parties, or even the come-downs that accompany those parties. It’s a sublime piece of seemingly carefree basement pop that betrays the band’s sense of meticulous perfectionism. Give in to its charms and walk away with a new summer anthem.

Listen to “Takfa Salieri” below and pre-order Air Guitar from Father/Daughter here.

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July 1, 2016

Parquet Courts – Human Performance (Music Video)

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There were a lot of great clips to emerge over the past two weeks. Some of the artists responsible for that welcome trend were Angel Olsen, Girl Band, ScotDrakula, Free Cake For Every Creature, Fury Things, Nap Eyes, Dinosaur Jr, Deerhoof, AJJ, Wolf Eyes, The Coathangers, The Velveteins, Thin Lips, ON AN ON, MRCH, Adam Olenius, Mumblr, and VHS. As great as several of those wound up being, few could match the bizarrely singular nature of the unforgettable, quasi-nightmarish clip that Parquet Courts offered up for career highlight “Human Performance“.

Likely knowing they’d have to live up to their strongest song to date, Parquet Courts turned in a clip that centered on puppets that boasted an intangible, human quality that makes “Human Performance” at once endlessly fascinating and deeply unnerving. It’s as if the band, through some unholy miracle, found the way to perfectly visualize the most deep-seated neuroses that informs the song. There’s a certain Lynch-ian quality to the proceedings, managing to be painfully grotesque and undeniably human all at once.

As good as “Human Performance” — easily one of this year’s best songs — was on its own, the clip manages to complement it so effectively that it creates a symbiotic relationship with each format heightening the other. From the song’s resigned delivery to the video’s frank depiction of late-life sexual exploration, everything syncs up in a transcendental tapestry of repressed emotions. In both cases, “Human Performance” is a meditation on what it truly means to be human and all of the limitations that accompany humanity’s frequently cruel realty.

It’s a video that’s proven to be impossible to shake and a watch that practically demands revisits. Bold, original, and even brave, “Human Performance” is a cogent reminder of the artistry that can be granted to — and even defines — the most mundane, trivial details of life. Since it’d be nearly impossible to capture the overwhelming amount of sheer feelings that runs through every single frame of the video, I’ll just shut up and let the clip speak for itself.

Watch “Human Performance” below and pick the record up from Rough Trade here.

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June 30, 2016

Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes/Fits (Split EP Review)

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Photograph by Stephanie Griffin // INDAFF

In the past week and a half a lot of full streams worth hearing have emerged, including titles from Feral Jenny, Ranch Ghosts, Lisa Prank, Sur Back, Stephen Steinbrink, Therm, CLAWS, Johanna Samuels, LUKA, Durand Jones and the Indications, Retail Space, and The Mystery Lights. Along with those there was also a Sundress Records compilation (Sunken Meadows – Vol. 1), a Vacant Stare compilation (Live From The Grassy Knoll Vol. 1), and a compilation from a long string of Kentucky-based musicians aptly titled We Have A Bevin Problem. Most importantly, that stretch of time also saw the release of Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes/Fits, a split EP boasting two of today’s most promising emerging acts.

Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes kick the proceedings off with the forceful basement pop of “Dad Got Me A Lefty Desk” that finds its strength in seamlessly alternating between razorwire breakdowns and propulsive, bass-driven main section. The vocals are impassioned and the band seems committed to sounding as menacing as their genre restrictions allow. The song’s over in two minutes and sets up “Mas and/or Menos” nicely, which opens with a tantalizingly off-kilter introduction before branching into the realms of disjointed post-punk. The band uses the spareness of the verses to their advantage here, injecting the chorus sections with an adrenaline that makes the track feel genuinely explosive; it’s a brilliant dynamic play that’s made all the better by “Mas and/or Menas” being, quite simply, a great song.

Fits waste no time on their side, kicking the transition off with “Fits”, which had a nice premiere piece over at Stereogum that dissected the band’s shockingly strong lineage (Fern Mayo, PWR BTTM, gobbinjr, Big Ups, and Museum of Recycling are all directly connected). Unsurprisingly, given the band’s pedigree, each of the songs on their side of the split are absolute triumphs. Sharp and sharp-witted, Cummins (who penned an extraordinary piece for the most recent crop of A Year’s Worth of Memories) leads their band through a trio of galvanized basement pop, never getting too cloy or too dour but always finding a way to effectively bridge the two.

All three of the band’s tracks on the split clock in at under 100 seconds yet land with such a fierce impact that they immediately register as complete entities worth even more than however many revisits they’ll undoubtedly earn. By the time “Why Did U @ Me” hurtles itself over a cliff and into some unknown abyss, Fits more than cement this split’s status as one of the very best of not just 2016 but of this decade. Everything on display here is a feat of strength and vision, ensuring both Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes and Fits a discography entry that’s alternately inspired and inspiring. Hop on now and hold on tightly for what promises to be an exhilarating ride.

Listen to the split below and pick it up here.

Tag: Review