by Benji Heywood, Dan Goldin, Kris Handel, Matt Watton, and Patrick Pilch
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our 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. 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.
ALIEN NOSEJOB
“Bird Strike”
Following the garage pop of last year’s The Derivative Sounds Of... and the agitated fury of February’s Cold Bare Facts, Alien Nosejob is set to release Turns The Colour Of Bad Shit, a blistering new album of scraping synth punk carnage and rock ‘n’ roll swagger. Due out September 20th via Anti Fade Records (AU), Total Punk (US), and Drunken Sailor (UK), Jake Robertson continues his amorphous approach to Alien Nosejob’s oeuvre, while keeping his signature bite and sordid humor a common thread. “Bird Strike,” the album’s lead single is a relatively patient track for the project, grooving in a shadowy din until Robertson’s words come splintering over the sustained and pulsating synths. With a slow grind rhythm and a sinister charm, it’s a tightly coiled ripper with a subtle cinematic scope to its dark progressions - Dan Goldin
BIG UPS
“Goes Black (This Is Lorelei Remix)”
Big Ups were a national treasure, but before that they were a local Brooklyn treasure, each show a gift of their acerbic and brilliant brand of punk. Celebrating the ten year anniversary of their full length debut, an album that changed everything, the band are set to reissue the long out of print classic via Dead Labour together with Eighteen Hours Of Static (Hxπ Decoded), a new remix album reimagined by Sad13, Rebecca Ryskalczyk, Twice Eyes, Maneka, NKF (Yvette), Lost Boy ?, Big Ups’ own Amar Lal, and more. While remix albums can be cause for concern for some punk fans, This Is Lorelei’s take on “Goes Black” should alleviate all worries. Big Ups were always a forward thinking band, and Nate Amos’ remix follows suit, swarming deeper into noise rock territory with a reshaped groove and incessant buzz, paying tribute to the original while making it heavier and more venomous. - Dan Goldin
CITRIC DUMMIES
“Trapped In A Parking Garage”
Minneapolis punks Citric Dummies are back with a 4-song EP of scathing punk rippers (out on Aug. 9th on Feel It Records). They play a brand punk that nods back to classic garage bands while winking towards hardcore and egg-punk tendencies. “Trapped in a Parking Garage” has it all: incessant guitar strums, nasally distortion, trampling drums, a cock-rocky solo, and an infectiously rousing melody. The singer’s throaty vocals fall somewhere between Danzig and Bob Mould. The song’s conceit is, like all the best punk, funny but biting – the parking garage’s meandering maze is the locus of modern malaise. This tune really scratches the punk rock itch. - Matt Watton
DUMMY
“Nine Clean Nails”
The second single from Dummy’s much-anticipated second album, Free Energy, is everything that’s right with this band. Ethereal vocals float above a trebly bass line and a clean, punchy beat, building to a chorus of squeezed synths and lush, suspended-chord guitar chime. Yes, they’re doing the Broadcast/Stereolab/Isn’t Anything-era MBV thing, but at this point Dummy are their peers, not just fawning imitators. What animates Dummy’s music is not a harkening back to past forms but a future-oriented gaze that responds to the present. “Nine Clean Nails” should be thought of as anti-shoegaze, anti-dreampop. It explores these same idioms – loud-quiet crescendos, swarms of echo-y vox and guitar, a marriage of dreamy ambience and punk rock directness – but it does so in a totally unique way. Dummy forgoes muddy distortion and showy volume changes for a cleaner, crisper, more organic whole that’s at once uplifting and enigmatic. - Matt Watton
EX PILOTS
“Motel”
Pittsburgh’s Ex Pilots make anthemic indie rock that bursts off the pages of their lo-fi playbook. While songwriter Ethan Oliva boasts analog loyalty to Korg and Tascam tape machines, the band’s sound only continues to expand with each record, which could not be more true on Ex Pilots’ new single “Motel.” The song splices wistful melodies with cavernous moments of surging distortion that hint at the sonic elbow room they allow themselves on their forthcoming Motel Cable. Catchy, noisy, wall-of-sound pop; “Motel” is an irresistible earworm. - Patrick Pilch
FRAN
“Television”
With the track "Television," Fran's Maria Jacobson sets a tale of the importance of appreciation to be found in little moments to a lilting folk guitar structure while her voice charmingly swoons the jaunty keyboard backing forward, full of emotion and deep attention. She takes a deeper look into joy in whatever situation you find yourself in life and takes a caring look at both the positive and negative aspects with finesse and a hearty sense of care. The dips and sways that are employed in the music will have you shuffling along keyboard lines, curling around Jacobson's full and rich voice that tremors with emotions throughout. Fran continues to show herself as a songwriter in full bloom with an ever intriguing approach and level of grace that is ever so easy to fully embrace. - Kris Handel
HEMLOCK
“Full”
"Full,” the latest single from hemlock's upcoming album, 444, has a bit of a dreamy slowcore approach to it as front-person Carolina Chauffe's guitar commences crashing and their vocals are full of a hearty twang. Previously Chauffe has treaded a quieter more reflective tact to there songwriting, but here allows some room to roam and occasionally roar as guitars are soaked in reverb and tremelo bringing some extra heft. The extra backing allows for displays of the power Chauffe's always brought, which lends a warmth and newer dynamics. hemlock continue to transcend what the project was before without losing the strength and cutting feelings that have always left such an impact with their songs. - Kris Handel
ROBBER ROBBER
“How We Ball”
In a musical landscape where everything is post-something or genre revival, it’s refreshing to hear a band that just rocks. Robber Robber may wear the post-punk tag but this band is all snarl. The Burlington, Vermont quartet’s song “How We Ball” from their debut album Wild Guess—out now—is frenetic, knotty and fun. Vocalist and guitarist Nina Cates conducts the punky banger with gleeful aplomb as the band absolutely shoves. Tightly wound riffs, hypertensive bass and breathless drumming make “How We Ball” sound like Television on Four Lokos. While it never careens off the rails, Robber Robber keep the momentum dialed at ten. If this song doesn’t get you amped, it’s you who needs the revival. - Benji Heywood
SLIPPERS
“Lock You Out”
In the same way we eagerly await a full length from Le Pain, ever since hearing last year’s slips demons, we’ve been anxious for more Slippers, the vibrant and fuzzy solo power-pop project of Los Angeles’ Madeline BB (Yucky Duster, Le Pain). Thankfully, that wait is over, as the new album, So You Like Slippers?, is due out August 16th via Lame-O Records (Trace Mountains, Golden Apples, Dazy). BB has a real gift for writings songs that melt into your brain, surging between sugary hooks and a dream pop bliss, her music jangles and radiates with bedroom pop ease but garage filtered distortion. “Lock You Out,” the album’s lead single is a fantastic introduction, a song that’s sweet and breezy but instantly memorable, softly roaring from one engaging hook to the next, simple but undeniably nuanced. - Dan Goldin
WHITE COLLAR
“Teenage Mutation”
White Collar’s searing final single from their Static Shock debut begs you to get fucking real. The Victoria punk outfit’s “Teenage Mutation” pins that mediocre scenester everyone seems to know; a social-climbing, self-important, no-good moocher. With members of Headcheese, Nutrition, Crosshairs, and Bootlicker, White Collar boost newcomer Loosey C. into the limelight, and for good reason too. The vocalist’s gravel-coated delivery is as incisive as their scathing lyrics; “Talk shit at every show/Headline the ones that you throw/It’s all about who you know/Or whoever has blow.” White Collar’s new self-titled takes aim at punk’s overdue reckoning with sexism, privilege, identity, and activism. - Patrick Pilch
Further Listening:
A DEER A HORSE "Rearview" | ANNA MCCLELLAN "Hold You Close" | BEING DEAD "Van Goes" | BENCH PRESS "Filter" | BLOOD "Holy Family" | ENVY "Beyond The Raindrops" | FEELING FIGURES "Doors Wide Open" | GUT HEALTH "Cool Moderator" | JAE SKEESE "Sara Lee" (feat. Jay Worthy, Dave East, & Lloyd) | JEALOUS YELLOW "Purple Crayon" | JOHN DAVIS "The Future" | KAREN O & DANGER MOUSE "Super Breath" | KING BUZZO & TREVOR DUNN "Eat The Spray" | MAL DEVISA “No Sleep Till Holiday (Demo)” | MAMALEEK “Legion of Bottom Deck Dealers” | MISCOMINGS "U R Wut U R Not" | MOOR MOTHER "Liverpool Wins (Movement 3)” | NAIMA BOCK "Gentle" | NAVY BLUE "Low Threshold" | NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE "Bright Sunny Day" | NEW SEVEN "Mission To Mars" | NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS "Long Dark Night" | PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE "Wish You Well" | PIROUETTE "Pirouette" EP | QUEEN SERENE "Glowing" | RAZ FRESCO & DJ MUGGS “World Peace” | SNAKESKIN "Wasabi" | SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE “Something’s Ending” / “I’ve Been Evil” | SPRING SILVER "The Utility Models" | THURSTON MOORE "New In Town" | UNIFORM "Permanent Embrace"