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.

COLD MEAT | ““Hot and Flustered” LP

At a time where we’re all quarantined in our homes, Cold Meat have released their first full length, Hot and Flustered, an early contender for “punk album of the year.” It’s a whirlwind twenty three minutes from the Perth, Australia band, blistering with agitated guitars and an ever brilliant vocal performance. With lyrics that are biting and sarcastic, revolting against big money, big egos, sexism, and the privileged few, Cold Meat sound fired up and anthemic, creating scathing punk songs you’ll be shouting along with in no time. The band dig and grind into sharp corners and ferocious riffs, paired together with the harsh but charismatic vocals that add nuance to the otherwise straight-forward crack of their energetic mayhem and pissed off aura.

DAMP | “Damp” EP

DAMP is the Brooklyn based duo of Rebecca Ryskalczyk (Bethlehem Steel) and Nick Dooley (ex-Flagland), joined on their self-titled debut by friends Alex Molini (Philary, Pile), Mike Quigley (Washer), Karna Ray (The Kominas), and Christina Puerto (Bethlehem Steel). Set for a proper release and accompanying tour at some point in the future, the band decided to share their EP out of necessity during the COVID-19 crisis as tours have been cancelled as well as service industry jobs put on hold while the city is shut down. Their record shares similarities with Ryskalczyk’s main project but DAMP goes for a sludgier atmosphere, darker and heavier in its brooding and its destructive nature. The strength of Ryskalczyk’s voice and sentiments is as powerful as ever, combining crushing emotional heft with a ringing sense of honesty. Do the band a favor and buy a copy on Bandcamp.

MELKBELLY | “Sickeningly Teeth”

While we all anxiously await the new Melkbelly record, due out next week, the band have shared the album’s third single, “Sickeningly Teeth,” and it’s more than just a great title. Chicago’s finest work with a collapsable tempo, shifting rapidly between overdriven sludge at a crawl and quick jolts of noise punk, the whole thing feeling kinda like being seasick… in a fun way. They contort the rhythm and the blanket of guitars with a wide range of distorted speeds, like the tape warping as we listen. The video, directed by Marty Schousboe (Joe Pera Talks With You) is full of gross teeth stuff and one guy joyfully waiving around a turd… but it’s more pleasant than that description would have you believe. Melkbelly do it better than most and PITH is an amazing record (just wait until you hear the combo of “Kissing Under Some Bats” and “Season of the Goose”), and we can’t believe they just keep getting better.

OLD MAN GLOOM | “Seminar IX: Darkness of Being” LP

Last week the legendary Old Man Gloom announced a new record, Seminar VIII: Lightness of Meaning for release in May with the colossal “EMF.” We were all set to write about that for this week, but lo and behold, the band decided to “Reverse Gloom” us all and have surprise released that record’s previously unannounced companion, Seminar IX: Darkness of Being, in full. While both records are due out physically in late May, we’ve been gifted an advance, and all of a sudden the world does seem a bit more tolerable. For those unfamiliar with the band, Old Man Gloom is the long-running project of Aaron Turner (Sumac, ISIS), the late Caleb Scofield (Cave In, Zozobra), Nate Newton (Converge), and Santos Montano (Zozobra), joined this time around by Stephen Brodsky (Cave In).

Since 1999, the band (an actual “supergroup”) have been releasing the most incredible of art metal records, built on booming ferocity, experimental dissonance, passages of ambient noise, and elements of hardcore, punk, and end of the world primal aggression. Seminar IX: Darkness of Being is an amalgamation of their sound, everything congealed together to create something impossibly dynamic and unbelievably cohesive at the same time. While we plan to dive deeper into this record over the coming weeks and months, Old Man Gloom have created a monstrously personal album, built to exercise demons and crush skulls all the same.

ONCE & FUTURE BAND | “Andromeda”

I’ve been utterly floored by Once & Future Band since I first heard them back in 2017 (their self-titled album was one of our absolute favorites that year… and still is) and we’re thrilled they’re back. Set to release their sophomore album, Deleted Scenes, next month via Castle Face Records, the Oakland quartet are once again making pitch perfect prog rock with touches of psych and power-pop that feel downright blissful. With sweeping orchestral movements and a kaleidoscopic core, “Andromeda” is essentially a stadium pop song (from a bygone era). There are just enough structural shifts to keep the framework forever wobbling between complex rhythmic wonderment and an epic nature, but Once & Future Band manage to keep their cool with a graceful brilliance, everything falling perfectly in place for a band who can count both Tool and Oh Sees as former tour mates.

STEVE HARTLETT | “Solitude for Dummies” EP

As the creative force behind Ovlov and Stove, Steve Hartlett has been responsible for so much of our favorite music over the past decade, and in 2020, he’s shared his first official solo album, Solitude for Dummies. From the big pop dance groove of the intro to “156 Dance Song” to the contemplative calm of “Instrumental Breakdown (Rusty Chain),” the album runs many moods and temperaments, a quick but nuanced flip through Hartlett’s warm and familiar songs. The feelings are relatable and open, with an earnest charm to their self-doubt and sense of cracked hope. Songs like “Helen’s Hand” takes a dreamy approach to creating a world of its own, one where all is what you make it, as notes delicately skitter across the acoustic strumming. “Favorite Friends” (much like Stove’s …Favorite Friend album) has a steady pulse and fluid progression that feels something like watching water run down stream. There’s hooks everywhere you look, delivered with an ever subtle touch. Solitude For Dummies has room to breath, evolving at its own gorgeous pace.

STUCK | “Invisible Wall”

We’ll keep saying it, Stuck is a special band, and unfortunately for them, they are releasing their debut album right into the pandemic void, together with the cancellation of their highly anticipated tour with USA Nails. You can’t keep a great band down though, and Stuck are sharing new single “Invisible Wall,” an intelligently paranoid song that builds tension in short unnerving bursts and then writhes free as it swings for the fences. Greg Obis questions who is really pulling the strings, singing, “Soft locked inside what I can’t know, Invisible walls, a humble home” as guitars rattle off in all directions and the rhythm stays forever locked into place. There’s a twitchy nerve, one that crawls up and down your spine as they are “looking for an answer,” slowly unraveling into unglued repetition, “like a decimal repeating…”. The best part about their upcoming record, Change Is Bad, is that two singles in and we’re only seeing a part of the picture.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM | “Suburbiopia”

Tropical Fuck Storm have managed to release album of the year contenders for the past two years in a row, and we eagerly await their attempt at a three-peat. In the meantime, ahead of their now postponed US tour (which we remain bummed about), the band are set to release a new 7” single for the cult inspired “Suburbiopia,” which features guest appearances from members of Surfbort and Amyl and the Sniffers (on percussion). With vocals from Fiona Kitschin and Erica Dunn, this one keeps the band’s mutant punk in good form, blending together an electronic pulse with a constant swell of bent and manipulated guitar effects. Much like Shell of a Shell’s Away Team, Tropical Fuck Storm are imaging just what life in a death cult was like, and trying to give it a positive spin, “don’t knock nothing until you’ve tried it.” Like most of their songs, it takes a few listens to truly grasp everything happening, and ultimately ends up an amazing listening experience.

Further Listening:

MARCH 16 - MARCH 22:

MARCH 23 - MARCH 24:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (March 16th - March 24th)