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 Chantal, Kate and Mike weighed in on some killer songs and have the scoop on plenty of new tunes, give ’em a listen!
Beach Fossils– Dare Me. The second single from the upcoming album Bunny is a song “about conflict, friendship and the intoxication of new love. Willing to let yourself be stupid, vulnerable, pissed off and forgiving” says Beach Fossils’ singer Dylan Payseur. In the familiar vain of their past work, this song is a fervent bedroom pop ear worm, the insistent guitars will swirl around in your brain long after the song has finished. Bunny releases in full on 6/2. [KH]
Big Bliss– A Seat at the Table. “We went on to be the first generation in American history to do worse than our parents,” Tim Race explains about the newest Big Bliss song. The song was written while suffering a particularly bad bout of Covid and was inspired by the media’s processed and packaged handling of tragedy throughout recent history. “Television offered us just enough distance that life appeared able to go on, only with another modicum more generalized mortal fear than the time before,” says Race.
Big Bliss is no stranger to pressing its thumb down on the necks of our society and searching for a pulse. Race (guitar, vocals), along with his brother Cory (drums) and Rose Blanshei (bass) shot a beautiful video spanning all corners of NYC that powerfully depicts both the eroding ugly decay and the sheer density and majestic wonder of our human experience despite the broken promises of elder generations. “Our greatest threat is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Their new album, Vital Return, is expected later 2023 on Good Eye Records. [MB]
Chime School– Coming To Your Town. This upbeat janglepop tune feels very seasonal. But it’s not all t-shirt weather over here: “Coming To Your Town” is “a feverish attempt to describe the reactionary political moment that seemed to infect the Bay Area during the pandemic.” The b-side is a cover of the Buzzcock’s “Love You More,” a song well suited to Chime School’s style, and they update it well. The band is currently playing selected dates on the West coast. [CW]
Clairo– For Now. A brand new demo from the bedroom singer turned indie pop darling bringing her back to her roots. All proceeds go to benefit Everytown and For The Gworls. [KH]
Death Goals– Year of the Guillotine. Each single the UK based queer screamo noise punk band releases ahead of their upcoming album A Garden of Dead Flowers is louder and faster than the last, expressing deep rage at the injustice queer people face on a daily basis that continues to poison society and threaten our very existence. But Death Goals aren’t going to take shit laying down and aren’t afraid to let anyone in their vicinity know that. “Year of the Guillotine” announces itself with a gut wrenching scream, battering ram drums and skin tearing guitar, giving a sonic voice to the painful frustration daily survival in an often hateful world can be. The band wrote on their Instagram “This song is dedicated to the trans community in this time of unparalleled hostility,” and further shared:
“‘Year Of The Guillotine’ was a song written as a response to the UK Tory government’s neglect of the LGBTQIA+ community. Neglect that has continued to fester and sadly we are living in a time of incredibly vocal hatred towards our community, not just in the UK but worldwide. But, try as they may, we will not disappear. You can’t erase us.”
The breakdown of the song sees the band getting into some HEAVY chugging hardcore territory with a very clear message screamed again and again: YOU CAN’T ERASE, YOU CAN’T ERASE OUR EXISTENCE before the song falls off into blackness. A Garden of Dead Flowers releases in full on 5/5. [KH]
The Drums– I Want It All. The Drums are a one man band these days, with only Jonny Pierce remaining, but the music remains much the same. “I Want It All” is an introspective piece about being strung along, with electronic drum beats, jangly guitars and Pierce’s voice full of longing wondering “tell me was it so hard / to give a little tenderness?” The Drums will be touring this summer, including a New York date at Webster Hall on 8/3. [CW]
Echo Moth– ‘Till You Merge. I’ve been a long time fan of experimental guitarist and composer Yana Davydova and the work she has created as both a solo artist and with Woodhead and the various musicians who move in and around that collective of artists. Perhaps my favorite though was the band she fronted, Echo Moth, which released the album Murmurs in 2016. I booked shows for and gigged with her and her various collaborators a lot in those days despite most of my bands being loud, much more rowdy punk bands; being a big group of true music lovers regardless of genre, it all worked. As life has taken other turns in the ensuing years, we haven’t played together in a long time and haven’t seen each other much of late but always stayed in some loose contact online.
And thus, I was thrilled to discover this week via the cesspool of the internet (it’s not all bad all the time!) that she is back under the Echo Moth moniker, releasing under that name for the first time since Murmurs and has a new album on the way later this year. The first single “Till You Merge” serves as a beautiful continuation of the journey of the first album, lush layers of guitars and dreamy vocals backed by her longtime collaborators, bassist Dmitry Ishenko and drummer Charles Burst. The as of yet unnamed album doesn’t have a release date yet, but it instantly has become one of my most anticipated records of 2023. Catch Echo Moth performing at Bushwick Public House on 4/20. [KH]
Holy Wave– Cowprint. A languid, dreamlike song full of atmosphere and harmonies, “Cowprint” is “a story of instant connections and missed opportunities” and comes across like a fading memory. The single has a pleasing, 70’s AM radio sound that also puts me in mind of the Clientele, and gets a little synthy and weird at the end, like any good dream should. The band recently signed with Suicide Squeeze and are planning an album in the later half of the year. [CW]
Louise Post– Guilty. This is a really fun track, and a little poppier than much of her work under the Veruca Salt moniker in the 2000’s after the departure of Nina Gordon (Post kept the band name). It’s probably a good thing Post is putting out fresh music under her own name, as “Guilty” does have a nostalgic 90s fuzz but also feels very modern, proving she can still keep up with the times. Bass driven and catchy, “Guilty” is a certified bop and a great addition to spring playlists. After a three decade career, she will be releasing her first ever solo album, Sleepwalker, out June 2nd on El Camino. Post shares:
“I have always identified as a sleepwalker. I slept-walked around my house routinely when I was a child, and even down the street. I believe in hindsight it was me trying to process what was going on in my home with my parent’s troubled marriage. As far as I know, I stopped sleepwalking after the divorce when I was eight, but it has always been a part of me that I feel protective of a little girl who I feel sad for.”
Post will launch a tour in support of the album which will hit NYC at Bowery Ballroom on 7/15. [CW]
Phantom Signals– basement. Proving sometimes all that’s necessary is an acoustic guitar and nice set of pipes, Melody Henry, delivers a sweet simple vocal over a soft strum that in itself invites you to pull in closer. But very quickly, the voices start to layer like choir of uncertain angels, joining and stacking their waves of sound until the intensity reaches a crescendo of euphonic resonance. With “basement,” Phantom Signals continues to over-deliver by simply releasing uniquely unassuming and authentic music that taps right into the human experience. [MB]
Pink Mexico– Dungeonhead. We wrote this up in Single Serve 036 and this week, the band released a brand new video to go along with it which we were very excited to premiere. Check the video out and pre-order the album on Bandcamp now. [MB]
Proper.– Milk & Honey (Luna Tunes remix). The latest track by eclectic collective trio, Proper., came out last week. A remix of the popular “Milk & Honey” from last year’s The Great American Novel, it’s a peppy reimagining of their original anthem and a banger reinterpretation. Often dancing across the lines of emo, prog, and even hardcore, the trio made up of Erik Garlington (guitar, vocals), Natasha Johnson (bass, vocals) and Elijah Watson (drums) borders on chill-wave here but they always keep the Black American identity at the core of everything they do.
Garlington recently talked to Rolling Stone who was covering the release of their video for “Jean” which celebrates the life of Jean Jimenez-Joseph, who died in ICE custody. He shared:
“From the jump, I wanted to be really punk and make white people uncomfortable. But as I got older and exited my early twenties, I would rather express the Black experience and show how beautiful it can be as a southerner, as a Black person, as a queer person, as an autistic person—and through the roots of rock music, that would be the best way to do it. I grew up listening to rap also, but I really wanted to see what I could do with a guitar and a band behind me.”
I had the pleasure of catching Proper. perform live last month at Purgatory on the Brooklyn stop of their tour with our mutual friends, Toronto band, Pseudo for their final tour and there was so much love and respect in the room. Jonathan Lyte (Pseudo frontman) who was also filling in on second guitar with Proper, took a moment to speak about what the band meant to him growing up. He said that as a kid, seeing someone who looked like him up on a stage performing this kind of music was the game changer that made it seem possible that he could start a punk rock band. [MB]
Pynch– Tin Foil. The latest from the London based indiepop group who are just about to release their debut album, this song deals with “how complex and overwhelming the modern world can be” and shit if I don’t feel that hard. The band’s Spencer Enoch shares:
“When we play live I always jokingly introduce ‘Tin Foil’ as being about conspiracy theories but really, I think it’s about how complex and overwhelming the modern world can be. It feels like we’ve been in one form of crisis or another for my entire adult life and this song is about our over-exposure to that level of stimulation and the need to escape it all and ‘get lost forever. It’s definitely one of our most upbeat and irreverent song so it feels right to be releasing it at the beginning of spring and just before the album comes out.”
Howling At A Concrete Moon is out 4/14. [KH]
White Beast– Fencewalker. This Richmond duo ticks a lot of boxes for me, those boxes being a two piece bass and drums band that makes sludgy, noisy loud rock music. (If you missed my recent list of my favorite two piece bands, this was a major recurring theme of my favorite bands. You can read that list here.) This song sees bassist/vocalist Jeffrey Rettberg teaming up with a new drummer, Sam Roberts (Private Hell, Fried Egg), releasing the follow up to the 2021 White Beast EP.
It’s a mid tempo rager that pulls back the curtain on things being “just fine” on the hellscape rock we live on, orbiting through time and space pretending we don’t see the world burning around us, the emperor’s clothes long gone Rettberg screaming Goddamn / Everything is fine / Goddamn /When is it your next time? in the chorus. This is the first taste of their upcoming full length, Suffering Time, though no release date has been announced yet. I also love the video which perfectly pairs with the song, melted dolls and all. I can’t wait to hear what the rest of the album has in store. [KH]