by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new 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. It's generally written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new 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 our countdown 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 of top-notch quality too.
BEVERLY TENDER | “Leaky, omnipresent voice in the sewers. An Instruction. A Recipe?"
Providence, Rhode Island has long been a breeding ground for weird music to truly thrive and it also happens to be the home of Beverly Tender, a trio who have been making great records since 2015. None of them have been overtly weird but there’s always been an experimental bliss just beneath their noisier songs. This all changes with the band’s upcoming third record, Little Curly/boy is a Bird, an album that has the band “jumping further into the computer.” They embraced all the weird and the glorious on first single “Leaky, omnipresent voice in the sewers. An Instruction. A Recipe?,” an abrasive noise pop song that wriggles around post-punk rhythms and experimental glitched out melodies. This song travels in a non-linear path, the parts moving in their own detached patterns, each section offering a new mindfuck of brilliant weirdness.
CHILD BITE | “The Fool”
Things have been relatively quiet for Detroit’s Child Bite over the past two years, at least for a band as prolific as they are. Since the release of their last full length in 2016 they’ve shared a split with STNNNG and a compilation, Burnt Offerings, that featured rarities and covers (at a massive 29 tracks), but they’ve kept a busy tour schedule, bringing their unique blend of noise rock, metal, and art punk to a town near you. They’re set to tour again this Fall together with Black Tusk, but before that they’ll release a new split together with metalcore legends Ringworm. Child Bite contributed three tracks to the split, each member writing a “quick shorty.” “The Fool” comes from guitarist Jeremy Waun and it’s a blueprint of all that’s great about Child Bite in just about a minute flat. The furious song convulses and twitches with complex rhythms and enormous riffs as Shawn Knight barks and howls like he’s lost his mind. It’s about as much fun as you can have in a minute’s time.
SLUMP | “Throbbing Reverberation”
Richmond, VA’s Slump are set to release their full length debut, Flashbacks From Black Dust Country, on the venerable Feel It Records toward the end of the month, and it’s the mix of punk and psych we’ve been waiting for. Taking elements of hardcore and drowning them in a sea of reverb and mind expanding distortion, there’s a definitely a hint of once label-mates Kaleidoscope, but Slump play their psych tidings closer to their core, tripped out and still pummeling. The album’s lead single “Throbbing Reverberation” really says it all, floating into ethereal washes of other worldly effects as they dig into buzzsaw riffs and dense pounding rhythms, the low end muscle providing a sludgy framework for the cosmic wandering. It all sounds pretty evil, but more like space-age evil, and not terrestrial evil.
SQUID | “Match Bet”
Squid, everyone’s favorite buzz band, are sharing “Match Bet,” the second single from their upcoming Town Centre EP (due out digitally this coming Friday, September 6th via Speedy Wunderground). The Brighton/London based quintet continue to prove they have a lot to offer the post-punk genre, with each single something like a new chapter from the same book. They have a formula, but they’re quick to subvert expectations, taking shifts both chaotic and mellow, pushing and easing the tension just as their razor tight krautrock grooves reach the point of snapping. “Match Bet” does this well, opening with a little twang and a finger picked melody before they dive into the unbreakable motorik groove, bass and cowbell leading the way. The highlight of all Squid songs however is when everything goes off the rails and the band revert toward unhinged, and this song is no exception, the feverish shouting as cathartic as ever.
WENDY EISENBERG | “If I Let You Stay” (Leverage Models cover)
I’m fairly confident that Wendy Eisenberg can do anything they want to, and do it better than most, as well. From avant-garde composition, to gentle bedroom pop, to searing post-hardcore (we’re still very much obsessed with the Editrix EP), the renowned guitarist/songwriter has a visionary approach to the music they make. “If I Let You Stay” is a bold reimagining of Leverage Models’ song of the same name, a contribution to Greys, a benefit for the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees ("MVRCR"), an organization in upstate New York’s Mohawk Valley region that assists refugees, immigrants, and "limited English proficient individuals" through a range of community-centered programs in order to help them achieve independence and self-sufficiency. Eisenberg takes the once electro-pop song and strips it done to the bare bones of guitar and voice, and does so immaculately, bringing out the beauty and the heartbreak in the lyrics with an airy and spacious acoustic composition.
Further Listening:
THE ALCHEMIST “Yacht Rock 2” LP | APPRENTICE DESTROYER “Permanent Climbing Monolith“ | AQUARIAN BLOOD “There’s A World” | BANANAGUN “Crane In The Tiger’s Mouth“ | THE BERRIES “Passing Scene” | BICHKRAFT “Desire“ | BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT “Run It To Ya“ | CAMPFIRES “Lucy’s Song“ | CHILD BITE “The Masochist” | DEEPER “Bennington” (John Maus cover) | DESERT SHARKS “Dating?“ | ESSI “Fly By” | EXEK “Unetiquetted“ | FAUX FEROCIOUS “Good Times Ahead“ | GUERILLA TOSS “Plants” | HISSING TILES “Rist” | THE HUSSY “Sorry“ | IGGY POP “Sonali“ | KAPUTT “Carnage Hall” | MARK LANEGAN BAND “Night Flight to Kabul” | MODERN NATURE “Nature” | NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE “Milky Way” | NICOLE YUN “Tommie” | OH SEES “Snickersnee“ | OPERATOR MUSIC BAND “Rex” | PARSNIP “Taking Me For A Ride“ | POM POM SQUAD “Cherry Blossom“ | POWER “The Fool” | PUSHA T “Coming Home“ (feat. Lauryn Hill) | PUSHA T “Sociopath” (feat. Kash Doll) | RYAN WEITZEL “Faraway“ | SASAMI “Take Care” + “Free” (feat. Tim Presley) | SKYZOO & PETE ROCK “It’s All Good” | SPRAY PAINT “Cleaning Your Gun” | SPRING SILVER “The Natural World“ LP | SUN JUNE “Monster Moon” | THIGH MASTER “Entity” | TREADLES “Kiss of Death“ (Pallet Session) | VAGABON “Water Me Down“