Various Artists is a new quarterly column that highlights compilations, the people who make them, and the causes they champion. Each release is accompanied by a “Choice Cut” from an artist that stands out. Most of these compilation’s proceeds go to charity, so if you find something you like, please send your support!

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Over the past 10 years, Amyl and The Sniffers have pushed the aesthetics, ethos, and energy of contemporary punk music. Their previous album, Comfort To Me, saw huge success on all fronts in 2021. On Cartoon Darkness, we hear the band ruminating on that success, what has come with it, and what’s coming next. 

In recent years, few bands have put noise rock on the map to the extent Chat Pile has. Their excellent second LP Cool World is a glorious mix of gothy riffs, nu-metal rhythms, and raw vocals that carry the torch for Albini-influenced noise into an even gnarlier new era. Right before their European tour, Post-Trash sat down over Zoom with Chat Pile to discuss horror in the digital age, the history of the Oklahoma City scene, and their new record Cool World.

The third full length from North Carolina based indie-folk group Fust finds the band mixing choogling and grinding southern rock with a sensitivity and gratefulness for all of life’s experiences. With Big Ugly, the band has cemented themselves as champions of celebrating the overlooked.

The magic of 1000 Variations lies in Frog’s ability to create endless stories from the same minimal arrangements. Their sixth album builds upon the band’s storied legacy with squirrely riffs and playful references to Taco Bell and Butthole Surfers.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

20247’s origins sound like the setup for a claustrophobic horror flick, but the killer presence on the latest Taxidermists album is its tunes.

As of late, claire rousay and more eaze (Mari Maurice) have made some of the most creatively intriguing, weirdly catchy, strangely hypnotic, and wildly avant-garde electronic and ambient music. Post-Trash chatted through Zoom with more eaze about no floor, the creative process, and her friendship with claire rousay.

The Unfit are not here to play games. The PNW quartet have a knack for punching the listener in the face with blaring guitars, pounding kick drums, and vocalist Jake Knuth’s full, spitting ferocity. Disconnected is their first full-length release, a collection of early EPs spanning from 2020 to present.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Cameron Winter, frontman of the New York rock band Geese, has made his solo debut as solo as possible. The songs on Heavy Metal grope around in the dark for sources of meaning, although the strongest sources are the easiest to find: love, God, and money.

What comes next for Deady is anyone’s guess, but we’ll find out soon enough as the band are getting ready to release 2 Dead 2 Furious in June. Continuing to stretch their amorphous punk core, “Hot Damn” finds itself rooted in anthemic hardcore.

Birthmarks is the sort of beast that slithers rather than stalks. Where Bambara’s previous efforts have been marked by distinct country air—backroads, out-of-town pit stops, decaying towns—Birthmarks is an album of people, of unreliable narrators and recurring failures.

The point is that Universe Room has something for any GBV fan. It shows that the band is exactly where they want to be: not repeating themselves but never losing touch with what makes them Guided by Voices. This is a band that does its own thing on its own terms, never caring what anyone else is doing, and Universe Room is the perfect showcase of that.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

On their spellbinding self-titled LP, Cryogeyser delicately straddles genre nuance while exploring universal themes of personal and collective metamorphosis. Their profound technical and cultural understanding of the music they make proves they know their shit without being dogmatic.

On Big Ugly, released by artist-run Dear Life Records, Fust preserves the nuanced grittiness of Southern life while challenging dominant narratives. Post-Trash caught up with Fust lead Aaron Dowdy to discuss evolving Southern identity, adding nuance to existing musical themes, and jamming with your friends.

Under the band name on their Bandcamp the tagline reads, “Party Music For Gay Angry Sluts.” Lambrini Girls’ debut album, Who Let the Dogs Out, echoes that tagline, and establishes their unique identity as they weave oodles of anger, vulnerability, and satire altogether.

The quartet of Sonam (Drill, Ursula), Pier (Privacy Issues), Kat (Amanda X, Clasp) and Juliette (Corey Flood), bring together so much of what makes Philadelphia’s DIY punk scene great, their music is scrappy and inventive, melodic yet raw, remarkably irreverent and socially conscious.

PFFU are incredibly good at noise pop earworms. The New York group crafted their debut album, ghostass, for two and a half years while scarcely offering short singles that are more ambient and bedroom pop than shoegaze.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

On Shafted By The Algorithm, Ghoulies offer a declaration of dissatisfaction with a world of digitally mechanized forces telling us how to feel, what to do, what to consume, and how to be. The album is a sonic slap in the face to all passive, inoffensive algorithmically pleasing wallpaper sounds.

Prostitute rage, screech, and tear through track after track of industrial indebted noise rock with not just ferocity but also exasperation. Each hit of the drums and slash of the guitar sounds as if it’s the band's last. Even as the album ends, the band desperately ask the listener to see the horrors before them through the raw desperation bleeding out of each note they play.

For Freckle—the new collaborative project between garage rock pioneer Ty Segall and Color Green guitarist Corey Madden—their self-titled debut is a means for experimentation while embracing their musical roots. Freckle is playful, coated with a lively texture of traditional rock melodies and bohemian percussion—a meeting place where both Segall’s recent instrumental endeavors and Madden’s breezy psych-folk are generously kissed by the Californian sun.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Offers is composed in its pits, peaks, straightaways, and detours. Largely improvised, the record finds Jason Koth and Miles Allen (Hiver) leaning into discovery while balancing slow-burn art-pop with plenty of breathing room.

Over the past few years, Porridge Radio have become one of the most exciting bands, consistently putting out excellent records. They recently announced their break up and a new EP, The Machine Starts To Sing, which is out today. The EP acts as a continuation (or a sequel) to Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me and is undoubtedly just as fantastic.