Hi! Hello! Here we are with some bite sized goodies and a taste of a some new things that we dug that came out in the last week (ish), quick fire responses to some great new music we think you should check out. This week “the Kates” aka Kate Hoos and Kate Bell teamed up and weighed in on some killer songs— give ’em a listen!
Basil’s Kite– Bak Vark. The latest from the Sydney based group’s upcoming album, Shooting Tsars, due out 3/24 via Dark Trail and its equal parts mathy, prog and frantic metal, like wild chaos in a bottle that’s ready to shatter from within. [KH]
Body Type– Miss The World. Bringing a little more thunder from Down Under, Body Type have just announced their second album, Expired Candy, and released the first single “Miss The World.” It’s catchy as hell with some really sweet opposing guitar riffs intertwining around each other and deals with the reality we all faced during the Covid lockdowns and the resiliency we all had to make it through. [KH]
Bouncing Souls– Shannon’s Song. This one is catchy and the production is crisp and air tight. The NJ stalwarts are a well oiled machine after decades of being at it, and the latest single from their upcoming album, Ten Stories High, will have you humming along, the perfect punk meets power pop showcase of everything they’re masters of. Ten Stories High releases in full on 3/24 via Pure Noise. [KH]
Catbite– Healthy Body (Operation Ivy cover). The up and coming ska band from Philly has been making lots of waves and working relentlessly over the past few years. They have a hectic touring schedule this year (you know I had to go there, wink) but found time to contribute a song to an upcoming OPIV covers collection, mooorree than just another comp. The album pays tribute to the seminal skacore band which launched the career of Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman and inspired legions of punks for decades to come, myself among them.
It will feature ska luminaries, We Are The Union, covering “Sound System” with Eve 6, plus contributions from Middle-Aged Queers, The Hellas, Scene Killers and many more for 33 overall songs aka one band doing each and every OPIV song. The comp will arrive in full on 4/7 and is being released jointly by Sell The Heart and Lavasox. Pre-orders are up now and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the legendary club that spawned OPIV (and Green Day), Gilman. In addition to Catbite’s song, “Uncertain” by Michael J. O’Connor is also available now. [KH]
Covet– Firebird. The Bay Area mathy prog rockers have just announced a new album, catharsis, and released the first single along with a very fun in the sun style video, complete with its muscle car namesake. Yvette Young’s massive and unique guitar skills are of course front and center here and she shares: “We did a lot of risk-taking on this album, I try to follow what excites me without heeding anybody’s expectations. I’m leaning into melodies, tones, and textures and trying to use them to transport listeners. The whole concept is escaping into a fantasy realm where the songs depict different characters and their own worlds. Each song is like their theme song. It’s mostly instrumental, but when you close your eyes, I hope people will be transported into the character’s story.” catharsis is out 4/7 via Triple Crown Records [KH]
Desert Sharks– Sleepy Pie. The long running Brooklyn based gloom grunge quartet has just announced a new EP, The Tower, due out 3/31 via Substitute Scene and we premiered the first video, “Sleepy Pie” this week. Read more about it here. [KH]
Forty Feet Tall– Shout (Tears For Fears cover). I recently found out about this band when I got a press release about their single “We Can’t Go Back To Normal” and I immediately fell in love with the infectious energy of the song (read my review). The Portland post punkers have a new EP coming next month, Tunnel Vision, and ahead of that they have lent their touch to the 80s Tears For Fears classic and released it as a stand alone from the EP.
I absolutely love a cover that takes a song from its origins to make it the newer artist’s own and they have certainly done that here. While they have maintained the darkwave feel of the original, they’ve taken the iconic new wave track from low-key and a little subdued to a bouncy grooving romp driven by angular, gritty guitars and intricate drum fills. This was a super fun stroll down memory lane and I’m more than ready to rock the new EP next month. [KH]
Frankie Rose– Come Back. The airy second single from Rose’s upcoming solo album Love As Projection (3/10 Slumberland), and it’s a bouncy sythpop plea to a lost love that would have felt right at home in 1987. Check out our recent coverage of Rose playing in her other project, Fine Place. [KH]
Gal Pal– Mirror. The latest from the experimental indie band, this one is dreamy and ethereal. The drums are herky jerky, the guitar spinning around on itself, and the vocals soaring with all of these elements meeting in a beautiful convergence of sounds and feelings. The band’s Emelia Austin shares: “‘Mirror’ formed from Nico playing cyclical guitar riffs over and over again. It helped me form the theme of being stuck in a pattern. I then wrote lyrics that were cut-off sentences, repeating again and again to express that feeling. For me, ‘Mirror’ is about the ways we allow our identities to be misshaped by people in our lives, how we are used as reflections for others, and the anxiety over being able to control it or not.” This appears to be a one of for now but we’re certainly ready for more. [KH]
Gel– Honed Blade. Gel is here with the second single from their upcoming debut full length, Only Constant (3/31 Convulse), and it is full of the raw heavy riffs they do so well. They will be touring a good amount over the next few months and will play a pair of release shows in NYC on 4/21 at TV Eye and 4/22 at Saint Vitus. Check out our recent coverage of night two of Screaming Females annual Garden Party where they played an opening set. [KH]
Handcuff– El Ganso. A fun punk romper from the brand new London based band. On their Spotify bio, they’re described as “short songs for bored people” with their origins as “coming together from different corners of the South East’s [England] DIY punk and indie scenes, they find a home somewhere between noisy indie rock and fast punk and hardcore,” I’d also throw in some shades of no-wave in the mix if I were in charge of describing it too. This is their second single, the lead guitar work here is tight and catchy and the song will have you pogoing around your house. Looking forward to hearing more from this new group. [KH]
Jayda G– Circle Back Around. “Circle Back Around” pulses with the electronic energy that the Grammy-nominated Jayda G is famous for, but the lyrical focus here is intensely personal and profound. The track is the first single off her upcoming album, Guy, which is dedicated to her late father, William Richard Guy (who passed away when she was only ten). On “Circle Back Around,” we hear actual archival recordings of the artist’s father telling stories about his life interspersed between the sparkling synths and pulsing bassline.
Jayda G said in a statement about the upcoming album, “I wanted the album to be a blend of storytelling, about the African American experience, death, grief and understanding. It’s about my dad and his story, and naturally in part my story, too, but it’s also about so many people who wanted more for themselves and went on a search to find that. This album is just so much for people who have been oppressed and who have not had easy lives.” Clearly, the celebrated house music producer and DJ is plunging into deep emotional territory, and if “Circle Back Around” is any indication, she’s doing it beautifully, making you dance and cry at the same time. Guy will be out 6/9 via Ninja Tune. [KB]
Jigsaw Youth– Stranded. This dramatic new single from the Staten Island-based punk/metal trio Jigsaw Youth is all about dynamics. The song tears back and forth between moody acoustic grooves to throbbing, full-on noise rage, with bassist Maria Alvarez’s outstanding alto power on vocals. She’s able to sound both soulful in the quiet parts and explode like a monster when the song turns around to rock out. Also featuring Alex Dmytrow on drums and Nastacha Beck on guitar, these three young women from Port Richmond once again show their fantastic power in “Stranded.” This is the latest in a series of singles they’ve released over the last few months, read our thoughts here, here and here. [KB]
Kele– Someone To Make Me Laugh. Lead singer of Bloc Party, Kele Okerere, is due to release his sixth solo album, The Waves, Part 2 next month, and “Someone to Make Me Laugh” is the third single off the coming record. The track pulses with thoughtful yearning, starting out with driving mid-tempo bass drums and slinky synths. Kele’s clear and expressive voice croons over the sweet pop grooves, asking in the chorus, “Can you fix a problem that you did not make? / Can you mend a heart that you did not break? / Oh, I just need someone t o make me laugh.” Kele’s flirtatious honesty in this reflective yet danceable song make me sure he will find someone to make him laugh very soon. The Waves, Part 2 releases in full 3/24 via Kola/!K7. [KB]
Knife Club– Repeat Repeat. Ah “life serial” aka the continuous repetition of the grind and feeling like you’ve lost yourself in it. Knife Club has immortalized that feeling here with their catchy ripper about being caught in the over and over and over again cycle of feeling stuck and like your life is going nowhere. Who among us can’t relate to that? I’m raising my hand right now for that! From the upcoming album, Our Club Our Rules, due out 4/7 via TNS. [KH]
Morgan and the Organ Donors– Letter. Here’s some groovy twangy twee garage pop from the Olympia super group paired with a fun Super 8 home movie style video. Featuring Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill on drums along with Olivia Ness of C.O.C.O., James Maeda of Spider and the Webs, and vocalist Sara Peté, they are aka The M.O.D.s and “The M.O.D.s are rockers. There are many storied tales of bands discovered in some forgotten record crate but no such tales of one in such plain sight. Morgan and the Organ Donors have been playing almost exclusively at one lone Olympia bar every December for the last decade.” Their self titled album is due out 4/28. [KH]
Movie Jail– Call The Neighbors. A bit indie, a bit post-punk and a dash Bossa Nova, there are synths and woodwinds interspersed throughout for a very interesting and eclectic mashing of styles.
And speaking of interesting, it also has some 80s pop culture nods with the band saying “Call the Neighbors’ is about the tension between a generation that views work as inherently valuable and those who see it as a means to an end. It’s a song about the joy of making questionable decisions – ‘making snow angels in the middle of the road,’ as the opening line suggests. The second verse references an episode of ‘Family Ties’ in which the Young Republican Alex P. Keaton convinces a found-object artist to mass-produce copies of his latest piece, The Spirit of Columbus, named for the Ohio city in which the sitcom is set. Coincidentally, the EP will be pressed at a plant in Columbus! So this song is definitely preoccupied with different ways of viewing one’s purpose in the world.” Who doesn’t love a good combined 80s sitcom reference mixed in with coincidence? I know I sure do. Their self titled EP will be released 3/3. [KH]
Rodeo Boys– Sugar. Lansing, MI queer rockers Rodeo Boys have just announced a brand new album, Home Movies, and shared the driving first single, “Sugar,” which will hit you with 90s nostalgia and a good bit of twang. The full album is out 6/16 via Don Giovanni. [KH]
Sandile– Stay So Long. A nice slice of indie bedroom pop from singer songwriter Sandile, a “nonbinary Zimbabwean multidisciplinary artist living on the unceded Lenape territory colloquially known as Brooklyn. A true pisces Venus, their songbook is a diaristic saga of unrequited crushes, an analysis of the distance between expectation and reality, and a treatise on the power of true love.” This one nicely showcases their lush alto over jangly guitars and confessional lyrics. According to Bandcamp, they are in the process of recording their debut EP and I’m certainly ready to hear more. [KH]
Shit Present– Voice In Your Head. The Exeter based band who self describes as “an emo pop rock punk indie guitar-based music project or whatever from the South West of England” has just announced their debut album, What Still Gets Me, and released the second single, “Voice In Your Head” which is a nice big helping of grungey indie punk with a fuzzy wall of guitars. (“Fuck It” was released last month initially as a stand alone but will also appear on the album.) The album arrives 5/5 and before that the band will play one of FTA’s favorite UK venues, Le Pub in Newport, Wales on 3/26 as well as Manchester Punk Fest on 4/7. [KH]
Sign Language– The Nothing. There’s some big riffs, big feelings and big sweeping chorus pedal laden passages on the latest from this post hardcore/shoegaze crossover outfit from Cincinnati. The fusion of these styles blend perfectly and make me think that if Hum had ever put out a hardcore record, it might have sounded like this. Their first single after their signing to Sunday Drive Records. [KH]
Thurston Moore– Hypnogram. The former Sonic Youth guitarist and long time experimental musician is releasing a solo album soon (though the date has yet to be revealed) and has released the first single, a sweeping seven minute opus. The first half of the song features Moore singing, though his vocals drop out at the four minute mark giving way to thoughtful and lush instrumental exploration. [KH]
Unknown Mortal Orchestra– Nadja. UMO’s new album comes out 3/17 via Jagjaguwar and they’ve dropped the latest single “Nadja” for more chill vibes. The band has a trio of shows at Webster Hall 4/13-4/15. [KH]