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.
BAD HISTORY MONTH | “Old Blues” LP
Bold, profound, and stunning, Bad History Month’s Sean Sprecher has proven once more as to why he is considered by many to be one of DIY’s all time great songwriters. On his latest album, Old Blues, the Boston musician confronts lessons learned at an early age and the way those have constructed the person he is today, and he tells these tales with both grim determination, philosophical introspection, and a shinning sense of humor that keeps the effort from feeling like a ton of bricks placed directly on your chest. Old Blues is an album that rewards (and possibly requires) repeat listens, with plenty to unpack, rethink, and to lose oneself within. It’s a world of thought and contemplation with a smirk, turning self-seriousness into lighthearted yet mind-blowing profundity and Sprecher’s signature guitar style giving emphasis to his lyrics.
BEAUTY PILL | “The Damnedest Thing”
Describing Beauty Pill’s sound has become near impossible, but it doesn’t mean we won’t try, as Chad Clark and company continue to be one of our generations most important voices. Following 2017’s pure masterpiece, Describes Things As They Are, the DC based project returns with Please Advise, a new EP that shares different tracks with each format. The record’s second single, “The Damnedest Thing,” led by Clark (while the first single was led by Erin Nelson), is quintessential Beauty Pill, which is to say it’s high art and high concept, with an experimental touch, brilliant orchestration, and a calming demeanor. With manipulated marimbas, rhodes, and duel guitar tracks, Chad Clark waxes poetic about “what if the thing that helps you live, is also the thing that will get you killed.”
BIG HEET | “Hiss” LP
Surprise! Philadelphia punk band Big Heet just released their sophomore album, Hiss, their first new record in three years (and first new music in two years following a digital single). The band has a new line-up since On A Wire, with band architect David Settle moving from Tallahassee to the always sunny city, and the trio have taken a more collaborative approach on Hiss. Their sound remains scuzzy, once again recorded by Settle in his basement, but there’s a brash attitude and intelligent aggression to the songs, with an ebb and flow that’s more nuanced than your average blown-out punk band. Ragged and filled with an anxious pulse rippling through the heart of each track, Big Heet hold no punches with caterwauling fuzz piecing each coiled rhythm and fractured melody, the band sound detached and reckless, the way lo-fi punk was intended.
DEERHOOF | “‘Farewell’ Symphony”
After twenty three years and at least fifteen albums, it’d be unprecedented to say that Deerhoof’s upcoming album, Future Teenage Cave Artists, is their best album yet… and it very well might be. The legendary band have spent decades proving their creativity over and over again, and rather impossibly, they are still getting better. Their new record a genuine cacophony of sounds, significantly experimental and disfigured, but constructed in an alien way that somehow still sounds like accessible pop in the end. “‘Farewell’ Symphony” is a wild and skronky ride, as harsh and jagged as they come, like a funk song that’s been blended into pulpy punk and noise rock chaos, with progressions and colossal beats all bleeding together to form new shapes, never seen before, and most likely never to be seen again. The song contorts from section to section, each building off the last while heading into its own orbit altogether. We need the world to heal because these songs demand to be heard live.
LITHICS | “Tower of Age”
Forever locked into place yet feverishly tangled, Lithics sound down right celebratory on “Tower of Age,” the title-track to their upcoming album on Trouble In Mind Records. Loose and buyount, the band’s guitars bounce back and forth between ears (we recommend listening on headphones), darting around the circular motorik beat, and shredding their way into the chorus. The whole thing bounces and Aubrey Hornor’s light vocal melody is the thread that holds everything together, though only at the seems. For a band that has mastered the snapped in mechanical sound of post-punk, this is what it feels like when things begin to skitter off the rails, a welcome turn in their evolving discography, and a song that continues to give their new album it’s own vivid drip of color.
Further Listening:
2ND GENERATION WU “New Generation” (Remix, feat. Method Man) | AUROCH “Stolen Angelic Tongues” LP | BANANAGUN “People Talk Too Much” | THE BERRIES “Saturday Music” | BOILING HELL “Fluff” LP | BR’ER “Fugue State” | BSF “Da Mob” + “Quarantine” | BUILDINGS “Felt Like A Perfume” | CAR SEAT HEADREST “There Must Be More Than Blood“ | THE COOL GREENHOUSE “Life Advice“ | DERADOORIAN “Monk’s Robes” | EARL SWEATSHIRT “Whole World” (feat. Maxo) | ESTHER ROSE “Blue On Blue” (Nick Lowe cover) | GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA “For My Friend” (Bill Withers cover) | GOLD DIME “My House“ (BTR Live Studio) | JASON SIMON “Red Dust” | KATIE VON SCHLEICHER “Wheel“ | LUNGBUTTER “Veneer” | MANEKA “Positive” (BTR Live Studio) | MARK LANEGAN “Stockholm City Blues“ | MAXSHH “Song For Glob” | MELENAS “Primer Tiempo” | MICROWAVES “Don’t Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk“ (The Cramps cover) | MODERN NATURE “Harvest“ (feat. Itasca) | NO AGE “War Dance” | NOUN “Drag” | NOVA ONE “Lovable” LP | OOZING WOUND “Surrounded By Fucking Idiots“ | THE PAUSES “Limp” (Fiona Apple cover) | QUELLE CHRIS & CHRIS KEYS “Mirage“ (feat. Earl Sweatshirt, Denmark Vessey, Big Sen, & Merrill Garbus) | RAMONDA HAMMER “Big Hands“ | RETOX “Garbageman“ (The Cramps cover) | SHELL OF A SHELL “Away Team” (Pallet Session) | THIS IS LORELEI “Sick Twist“ | TIME VAMPIRE “Matter of Fact“ | ULTHAR “Through Downward Dynasties“ | VIRGINIA TRANCE “Some People”