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 | “Breakdown Lane”

For a sad song about life passing you by, Bad History Month’s latest single “Breakdown Lane” sounds relatively upbeat. The weight from his shoulders seems momentarily removed, and even as he reflects from the end of another day removed, the sound feels breezy. With a steady tempo that keeps the song bouncy, Sean Sprecher’s feedback soaked guitars and his gentle voice do the rest, finding solace in a swarm of enveloped noise. It’s both aggressive and meditative, an ease is painted between the scrawling distortion. Sprecher makes his point, lets it rattle and resolve, and fades away, without a moment wasted. True Delusion is out July 7th via Julia’s War Records.

BLONDE REDHEAD | “Melody Experiment”

There are few bands that operate the two-headed vocal approach with the grace of Blonde Redhead. Since their earliest days of post-hardcore brilliance, Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace’s voices have felt like a necessary compliment, you can’t imagine one without the other coming shortly after, each possessing a cool amorphous sense of detached soul. “Snowman,” the lead single from Sit Down For Dinner, captured Pace’s slinky verses with the two harmonizing on the hooks, but Makino takes lead on “Melody Experiment,” swirling around the band’s time shifting groove, giving a haunting glimmer to the detached bliss. Her voice is light and airy, breathy and smokey, and as always, exquisitely enchanting.

BUSTED HEAD RACKET | “Junk Food” EP

If you’re looking for great punk music without a shred of self-seriousness, look no further than Newcastle, Australia’s Busted Head Racket. For the past two years the trio has been making zany synth punk that is more exuberant than most. One listen to their Junk Food EP though and it’s apparent that they’re the spiritual siblings to Snooper, focusing on a similarly electric sense of energy, crackling out the speaker with campy hooks and dizzying jitteriness. Their songs are impulsively catchy while their lyrics offer a cartoony sense of humor, highlighted on songs about fast food, but more often than not they’re exploring human relations, and the way people interact with agendas at hand.

FLORRY | “Drunk and High”

Florry arrive fully formed on The Holey Bible, their new full length, due out August 4th via Dear Life Records. They are refining their country tunes in a way that feels classic yet modern, songs that feel as old as time, but with a positive resolve sorely needed for these modern days. Francie Medosch and company are trying to focus on the bright side, and their twangy reflections of positivity hit with comfort along the dusty trail. “Drunk and High” bursts with big country energy from the moment it begins. Much like discovering Neil Young’s music for the first time, Florry tap into a similar realm for a new generation. The song is full of barn-burning hooks and easy sentiment, the feeling that you’ve been reunited with a dear friend you never knew existed.

LIVING GATE | “Internal Decomposition”

After a great debut EP released back in the summer of 2020, Belgium’s Living Gate return with “Internal Decomposition,” a new single that finds them in fine form. The international death metal quartet - Aaron Rieseberg (YOB), Lennart Bossu (Oathbreaker, Amenra), Wim Coppers (Oathbreaker, Wiegedood), and Levy Seynaeve (Amenra, Wiegedood) - grind and scrape with explosive disgust, the riffs as gnarly as rot in the summer sun. This one is brutal and brash, the drums storming through ever changing fills while the riffs settle for permanent filth. While it seemed possible the band’s debut was a one-off collaboration, we’re grateful for their return, and this video is undeniably wild.

PUPPY PROBLEMS | “Rainbow Flag”

Puppy Problems return with their second album, Winter In Fruitland, due out September 22nd via Anything Bagel Records. “Rainbow Flag” is the album’s first single, a song about Boston’s rapid gentrification, specifically in regards to those pushing out the communities they seek to support. From the bright acoustic guitars that open the song to the slide-assisted twang, Puppy Problems are picking up where they left off, with that noticeable boost in sonic clarity, everything crystalline in presentation. At the core of “Rainbow Flag” is Sami Martasian and Dylan Citron’s (bedbug) harmonized vocals, singing sweetly as they watch their DIY spaces change into stores and their friends pushed further out of the city. Instead of getting swept into despair over days gone by, the song ends with a beautiful statement, “I don’t want to look back until there’s nothing left to look forward to.”

SHADY BUG | “What’s The Use?” EP

St. Louis DIY heroes Shady Bug return with What’s The Use?, a new EP that captures growth through change. Hannah Rainey (vocals, guitar) takes a leadership role in the shape of their sound, developing songs with a new explorative sense of freedom. Recorded together with Alex Molini, Shady Bug are still juxtaposing sweet pop charms and syrupy hooks with blistering noise, lulling you into their sugary innocence before blowing it all away. The difference is they are doing it with an added confidence, following instincts that swerve between walls of shoegaze guitars and laconic rhythms, augmented with a focus on Rainey’s reflective lyrics. What’s The Use? explores pop music at it’s most warped, pulling away from simple melodies in favor of getting gloriously weird.

SILICONE PRAIRIE | “Serpent In The Grass”

Silicone Prairie’s debut set a strange benchmark, an album that felt like brilliantly scattered thoughts brought to life, and things are only getting (delightfully) weirder on Vol. II. Due out July 28th via Feel It Records, it’s the type of album where anything feels possible. Ian Teeple is rarely content to stay in one place musically, happy to blur genre lines in the favor of great songs, skipping between glam-soaked power-pop, twitchy lo-fi disco, swooning bedroom prog exuberance, and of course post-punk at it’s most artistic. “Serpent In The Grass” is the record’s lead single and album opener, a song that flutters around at hyperspace speeds, sounding something like a cassette caught in fast-forward. It’s probably one of the more “straight forward” punk songs on the record, but there’s little “straight forward” about it, as the song grunts and sputters its way into buried solos that sound like an animal crying out, synths that warble their way off steep edges, and drums that shred through it all.

THIRDFACE | “Trap Revealed”

While we all await Thirdface’s second album, the Nashville based hardcore band are sharing “Trap Revealed,” a brand new song on Secret Voice’s Balladeers, Redefined compilation. The collection features screamo and screamo-adjacent hardcore, punk, and indie bands, highlighted by Soul Glo, Nø Man, and of course, Thirdface. “Trap Revealed,” like many Thirdface songs opens with a bang, the most immediate moments pouring out the gate, led by Kathryn Edwards’ blood curdling vocals. In just under two minutes, the quartet are bending tempos and dipping into a sludgy beatdown of a riff, stuttering through explosive energy and primal brute force. Continuously evolving, the song proves why Thirdface are one of hardcore’s most exciting bands.

YUNGMORPHEUS | “The Price”

The latest YUNGMORPHEUS album From Whence It Came was released just three months ago via Lex Records, but the Los Angeles based MC has returned with a new single on a new label. His record is one of the year’s absolute best hip-hop albums, fully realized and loaded with reactionary raps. “The Price” comes via Mello Music Group (Kool Keith, Marlowe, Apollo Brown), a summer jam that feels like a timeless classic. Produced by YUNGMORPHEUS himself, he really shines on the beat, with funky bass, laid back drums, and warm synth grooves, it’s the type of track you’d love to hear your favorite rapper on, and no surprise, YUNGMORPHEUS crushes it, reflecting on the consequences of choices and rolling with his decisions. It’s “song of the summer” good.

Further Listening:

JUNE 19 - JUNE 25:

JUNE 26 - July 02:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (June 19th - July 2nd)