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.

DAVID NANCE | “Duty Now For The Future” LP (Devo covers)

Bandcamp Day is always good for a few surprise releases and David Nance stole the show on February 5th with a full album cover of Devo’s great sophomore album Duty Now For The Future. It’s not the first time that Nance has tackled a full album cover (he’s previously done The Beatles and Rolling Stones), and rather than bringing the Devo sound to Nance’s repertoire, he’s bringing his sound to the songs of Devo, offering that big fried front-porch sound he’s perfected to the otherwise jagged originals. It’s as interesting as it is compelling and while it sounds a world apart, it works track after track. David Nance can do no wrong.

EDITRIX | “Tell Me I’m Bad” LP

There’s not a moment wasted on Editrix’s debut album Tell Me I’m Bad. The record shreds, contorts, grooves, and obliterates in the name of making interesting music. The trio work together to follow paths where they may lead, always pushing forward, digging in further as they move from moment to moment. The entire record has an incredible reckless energy to it, but there’s nothing haphazard about it, Editrix play tight and chaotic, with everything falling exactly into place. Most of all though, it’s an album that sounds fun, sounds alive, like the exorcising of bullshit in the name of making brilliantly complex yet accessible rock without guidelines.

EIEIEIO | “Jerkface”

We last wrote about EIEIEIO at the very beginning of this year following the release of the short, wild, and amazing Gentle Spaniels EP. The Western, MA trio (comprised of Wishbone Zoe, Max Goldstein, and Sam Brivic) are wasting no time as they get ready to release another one this week, the Great Siz EP, due out February 19th. The first single “Jerkface” is everything we love, with triumphantly freaky musicianship and songwriting that is part psychedelic, part noise pop, part no-wave, and entirely inviting. It’s heavy and weird (but not weirdly heavy) and the animated video (made my Wishbone Zoe) really ties it altogether. We can’t wait to hear this one.

FLOATIE | “Catch A Good Worm”

Voyage Out could very well be the perfect name for Floatie’s debut album. The record (produced by Seth Engel of Options) as a whole is an immersive experience, where one song works its way into the next. The Chicago quartet manage to tangle themselves together into a unique bond, their musical fluidity never ceases to amaze as they weave around collapsing structures and spacey melodies. The record’s lead single “Catch A Good Worm” could be one the record’s most “pop” moments, though the band always strike a delightful balance between off-kilter hooks and mind altering progressions that feel beautifully alien rather than abrasive.

FREAKING | “Walk On Land” LP

We’ve been excitedly awaiting Freaking’s debut full length since we first heard the band back in 2019. The Boston based quartet (which shares members with Salem’s SUPERTEEN) released Walk On Land on Valentine’s Day, filling our hearts and ears with an endless joy. Freaking rarely stay still and they’re well adept at cosmic shifts and sharp changes. There’s a vast world out there to explore, with no reason to stay in one place for too long. The band blend elements of prog, psych, punk, and slacker rock together seamlessly into their own unique formula, often dreamy and disorienting before falling apart at a whim and collecting itself just as fast. It’s an excited debut album from a band that sounds fully formed.

MOONTYPE | “About You”

Chicago’s Moontype will release their highly anticipated debut album, Bodies of Water, via Born Yesterday Records (Caution, Dummy, Stuck) in early April. We’ve already heard the album’s first single, “Ferry,” and trio return with another glimpse at what makes them such a special band courtesy of “About You.” Essentially a complex pop song, the band warp a quick tempo with a head-bobbing pulse, the rhythm exceedingly tight as the song swells and swoons. There are plenty of stop/start structures and explosive moments, but everything is reigned in by the sweet vocal sentiments and the perfectly crafted melodies.

PALEHOUND | “How Long”

Palehound’s Ellen Kempner is one of the most consistently promising songwriters we have in this world, each new song a welcome addition to her expanding catalog. “How Long” is a timely new stand-alone single that reflects on the current situation we all find ourselves in with a big twangy groove perfect for your next barn dance… or some good sunny front porch music. Without a moment wasted, Kempner’s voice sits perfectly over the acoustic jangle and the folk circle rhythmic elements, as she asks “how long until this is the past we can’t believe we’re looking back on.”

PACKS | “Hangman”

For any long time readers of the site, you’ll know that we’ve been singing the praises of PACKS (formerly known as PAX) for quite a while now. The Toronto’s band make dreary lo-fi and tapey pop among the best of them, warping sounds and layering on just the right subtle touches to keep it all interesting. Now the group has joined Fire Talk Records (Mamalarky, Corey Flood, Dehd) and they’ve shared new single “Hangman,” our first preview of what’s to come. It finds all the hallmarks of a great PACKS song in place, a dizzying vocal delivery from Madeline Link, flashes of blunted sunspots and aural squiggles, everything wrapped together for a wondrous calm. We’re sad that everything previously released has been pulled, but eager for the future of PACKS.

SPODEE BOY | “Rides Again…” EP

Nashville’s weird and wild garage punk odyssey Spodee Boy has returned in a way we’ve never heard him before. While most of the band’s catalog is very much in the “Devo-core” pocket of the egg punk world, Rides Again… is something else entirely, an oddly twangy sort of slow moseying outlaw cowboy punk… and it’s amazing. The fidelity is easily the best we’ve heard from the project and the song’s feel a bit more realized, at least in the regard that there seems to be a conceptual theme tying each of the EP’s four songs together. It’s like an acid bender through the desert, imagine Morricone meets The Butthole Surfers, delivered with a reckless brand of Western sludge.

THIRDFACE | “No Requiem For The Wicked”

There’s no hardcore band that rip quite like Thirdface do. Maybe it’s the underlying technicality in their playing or the fact that they’ve cut their teeth in other genres (see: Sallow, Donors, Yautja) but nothing seems off limits in the way a Thirdface song comes together and yet, it’s hardcore through and through, skull crushing, teeth smashing, socially focused hardcore. “No Requiem For The Wicked” is a swift reminder of the band’s dexterity, from the stomping primal crush of the opening verse to the tangled outbreak of the grindcore inspired mid-section, to the ever expanding blistering splatter of riffs in the finale.

Further Listening:

FEBRUARY 01 - FEBRUARY 07:

FEBRUARY 08 - FEBRUARY 14:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (February 1st - February 14th)