Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (July 25th - July 31st)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our top ten 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. It's generally poorly written and totally unedited... but full love of heart. The number rankings are fairly arbitrary and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music included in this feature. There's a lot of great music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music. *Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in the top ten on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "further listening" as well because it's often "top ten" quality too.

1. KRILL | "Krill" EP

Say it loud, say it proud... Krill Forever. While the band remain broken up an thoroughly inactive, they have graced the world with Krill, a new EP featuring five songs the band had written and recorded just before calling it quits. As you may expect they continue to show the growth and promise of A Distant Fist Unclenching, and yet again prove that no one can do it quiet like Krill can. These songs were a thrill to hear live and the recordings are exceptional, capturing the bugged out math-pop magic and introspection that's signature Krill, while constantly advancing their capabilities. I still miss Krill with each and every day and it's a void that I can't imagine will ever be filled, but hey... at least we have five more incredible songs.

2. J&L DEFER | "Nowhere"

Is this what experimental pop perfection sounds like? Listening to "Nowhere" feels as though being "lost in a dream" as Gabriele De Mario sings, but it's not your ordinary dream and J&L Defer aren't your ordinary band. The duo of De Mario and Anita Rufer, better known as Disco Doom, created J&L with a freedom to explore, and "Nowhere" is their unofficial anthem. "No one, nowhere" repeats amid snaking synths and washes of guitar feedback, bubbling rhythmic snaps and pops, and gorgeous layered melodies. Elements of song build and fade, bouncing around like the sweetest of ear candy. Analog noise rarely sounds this fun, soak it in.

3. FERN MAYO | "Hex Signs" EP

Fern Mayo dropped Hex Signs, a surprise EP this week and it's a ripper... like a serious shred fest of focused and tangled indie punk and gorgeous songwriting. Katie Capri's vocals are ever strong and radiant, she sings with a unique style that's simultaneously shaky and powerful, letting go in the most captivating of ways. The trio are locked in from the start, tearing through "Pinesol" with unexpected dips and grooves that burst through mounting tension and shifting rhythms. The post-punk and art rock tendencies are further accentuated on "New Ketamine," the EPs elastic single that dives headfirst into a dense instrumental of blistering riffs and dynamic wonky structures.

4. BUENO | "Blown Out"

"Blown Out" is a dreamy track, showing the sweeping nature of Bueno at their finest. Juggling between Illuminate Your Room's shifts between NYC indebted post-punk, jammed out grooves, and delicate indie pop, "Blown Pop" is all crooning bliss. Luke Chiaruttini sings of broken memories, overstimulation, and reworked nostalgia, capturing the momentary confusion that comes from triggered memories as the song slinks about on duel guitar harmonies and infectious vocal melodies with a breezy charm. It’s a slacker pop anthem of repressed thoughts amid “the wasteland” of Chiaruttini's mind.

5. SPACE MOUNTAIN | "Never Lonely"

Space Mountain, the Boston based project of Cole Kinsler, is back with a stunning new record, Big Sky, set for release in late August. "Never Lonely," the album's first single is a bit different than what you might have come to expect from Space Mountain thanks to a guest appearance from Ava Trilling of Forth Wanderers who handles the bulk of the vocals. Trilling's verses are heartbreaking and delivered with a slow dripping haziness that works perfectly with the songs lead guitar riff, but the highlight comes when Kinsler’s low moaning croon enters, harmonizing gorgeously with Trilling’s raspy beauty. The song focuses’ on faux salvation through friends, both imaginary and real, and the escape of loneliness in empty relationships.

6. CARL SAGAN'S SKATE SHOES | "Sundance Kid"

Carl Sagan's Skate Shoes are bringing Austin's rich 90's noise rock underground back with their heavy as bricks post-hardcore menace. "Sundance Kid" captures the band's Southern twang under layers of ringing guitar distortion, an outlaw song for the modern times. The band’s noise punk and post-hardcore influences are radiant as they up the deranged cowboy vibes and dangerous desert imagery to offer a triumphant new dynamic to their unapologetically crushing sound. When compared to first single “(I)” and its thick wall-of-sound brutality, “Sundance Kid” offers a very different look into one of Austin’s absolute best new heavy bands, and it's evident their self titled debut captures more than just one foul mood.

7. OPPOSITE SEX | "Oh Ivy"

New Zealand's Opposite Sex are getting ready to release their sophomore album Hamlet in just a few weeks on Dull Tools, a fitting pairing for the label co-founded by Parquet Courts' Andrew Savage. The record is weird in a wonderful way. Songs cut between post-punk, art pop, and bizarre experimental moments, but there's a smirking sense of sarcasm running deep in the album's lyrics. Lucy Hunter drifts between slinky sensualism and manic shouting on "Oh Ivy" showing an awesome range on one of the album's many stand-outs. The video captures a blindfolded dancer moving chaotically between two hanging ferns, but there's no cameo from Zach Galifianakis. Instead, there are reflections of the dancer as a blinking apparition type vision, seemingly rattling the dancer's movements into seizure like territory in time with the song's building tension,

8. HELVETIA | "The Rubber Maids"

Just when you think Helvetia couldn't possibly go and be more awesome they go an do something like this... and release a video with a horse man on a rampage. "The Rubber Maids," a song from Dromomania, (one of our favorite records of last year), is a fairly aggressive song for the Portland band's brand of indie psych and noise pop. Built upon thick fuzzy riffs and deconstructive distortion, the song eventually warps into calmer territory before long, though still heavy on the clamoring guitar noise. The video follows suit, with the horse man's wild rampage transitioning into slightly less chaotic ensuing police chase.

9. TY SEGALL | "Wave Goodbye (live)"

When it came time for Death By Audio's unfortunate closing, the much beloved DIY space went out with a bang, inviting a collection of bands that were both influential to the space and band's that helped make it such a special community. I was lucky enough to catch most of the final weeks at DBA and it was indeed a festive time despite the great sadness. DBA was (and will always be) one of my favorite venues, not just because it felt welcoming and important to the city's "scene" but because Edan WIlber's tireless booking and curating of the venue introduced me to a lot of fantastic bands. Start Your Own Fucking Show Space captures that final month of shows over the course of three LPs. Lightning Bolt, the last band to ever play the venue, were the first to premiere a single (which we featured here), and this week we've been graced by Downtown Boys (below) and Ty Segall's contributions to the live compilation. I caught Ty Segall and his band at DBA several times over the years and each and every time was pure ballistic insanity. This time was no different and thankfully we can forever re-live the moment with "Wave Goodbye," a riotous performance of the band's barn burning garage sludge from my personal favorite Segall album, Slaughterhouse.

10. DINOSAUR JR | "Goin Down"

The new Dinosaur Jr. album, Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not is a return to form for the trio... following the rare swerve from form that was I Bet On Sky. "Goin Down" the album's opening track makes sure of that with a classic scrapping Dinosaur Jr. riff and hard hitting rhythm full of burly chugging to offset J Mascis' classic yearning vocals and hi-squealing guitar shredding. It's got a simple (and classic) hook and the whole thing just feels right. It feels good.

Further Listening: