by Benji Heywood, Dan Goldin, Giliann Karon, and Kris Handel
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
“Trapped In Time”
Turns The Colour of Bad Shit is the seventh album from Jake Robertson’s punk music polymath project, a record that seems to draw from all of his many influences. Due out on September 20th via Anti Fade, Total Punk, and Drunken Sailor Records, it’s a record that’s both brute and brash, hilarious and snide, with a non-stop momentum that barrels forward like a week long bender. Following the dark synthetic groove of the album’s lead single “Bird Strike,” Alien Nosejob return with “Trapped In Time,” an upbeat song built on a tight rhythm, handclaps and all. With a propulsive energy, Robertson bounces around the beat with anthemic riffs and scorched synths, frenzied with everything buzzing at maximum volume. Taking a tongue-in-cheek stab at the notion of being stuck in the past, the song blasts through solos covered in enormous riffs, the entire thing threatening to burst at the seams. - Dan Goldin
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
“Chewing Gum”
Amyl And The Sniffers have achieved mainstream success and it’s damn well deserved. The Melbourne quartet have emerged as the world’s “great punk hope,” able to play both stadiums on tour with Foo Fighters and to wreck shop with peers like C.O.F.F.I.N, Party Dozen, and Upchuck. There’s an incredible awareness in their music that derives from Amy Taylor’s lyrics - tough, unapologetically fun, vulnerable, and void of bullshit in equal measure, creating anthems for the punks looking for love, proudly flying their freak flag as they rise above the noise of “polite” society. “Chewing Gum” is the latest from the band’s highly anticipated new album, Cartoon Darkness, a rollicking great song, built on muscular riffs and energetic hooks. While it would seem rooted in young dumb love, Taylor described it as being “about the carrot being dangled in front of the donkey, always close but never close enough to take a bite”. - Dan Goldin
CHAT PILE
“Masc”
"Masc" is the latest track from the bludgeoning powerhouse that is Chat Pile. The rhythm section pounds away furiously underneath a reverberating chug of heavy shoegaze guitars interspersed with stabbing staccato riffs. Raygun Busch's slightly monotone vocals rant and drift under the muscle of the band as Luther Manholes’ screeching guitar blares through the din and the band lays out its brutal assault. Chat Pile are truly unafraid to broach any subject on their minds with a terrifying level of tenacity. a virtue so badly needed in the present environment unfolding daily in the world, providing a much needed breath of fresh air that is worthy of all the praise. After stating their case as one of the more fire-breathing and vital bands of present day on their debut full length, God's Country, upon hearing "Masc" and previous single "I Am Dog Now" there is much to anticipate digging into on follow up Cool World, out on October 11th. - Kris Handel
DANA GAVANSKI
“Ought To Feel”
LATE SLAP, the latest album from Dana Gavanski (released back in April) is one of the year’s absolute best albums, a stunning art-pop record built on detailed nuances. Intricate and adventurous, her songs squiggle and contort, lilting with an accented touch while sweeping into fizzy progressions and pop brilliance. Four months later and Gavanski is back with “Ought To Feel,” a dazzling new song recorded during the album’s sessions, capturing the same evolutionary magic in her writing. The song unfolds with a delightfully off-kilter pulse, gliding between movements, highlighted by bursts of melodic and lyrical hooks (the line “I’m not a witchy witchy cat” really does glow), shifting as it goes, mesmerizing in fluid harmonic motion. “Ought To Feel” is a song about crippling apathy, taking shots at overwrought cynicism through a kaleidoscopic lens. - Dan Goldin
FRAN
“Florida”
Maria Jacobson has been cranking out stunningly impactful songwriting as Fran for the past few years and "Florida" once again continues on the path of pure and heart-wrenching beauty. She has a knack for composing songs with remarkable melodies that build upon sparse folk foundations and an alluring melancholy as well as appreciation of the world around her. On this stand-alone single, Jacobson's vocals take a little bit more of a subdued tone as she details longing for connection with an air of whirling keys and a steady backbeat. Fran's loping wobble is intoxicating and the sparseness allows for the heavy yearning to make a hefty impression on this wistful and haunting tune. - Kris Handel
IT THING
“Persian Rug”
It’s one thing to be a punk band from Australia, it’s a whole other thing to be from Tasmania, where It Thing formed over drinks at a hotel bar in 2019. The band’s relocation to the musical hotbed of Melbourne hasn’t dulled the Tasmanian four piece’s weirdo charm. On “Persian Rug,” It Thing’s effervescent take on proto punk remains as approachable as it is fiery. The song benefits from the band’s willingness to drive home a riff, alternating between a two-note siren call and a staccato stutter as singer Charlotte Gigi vamps like a riot grrrl Kate Pierson. There’s enough dissonance on “Persian Rug” to satisfy listeners who require some bite to their besos while still retaining the effortless moxie of Australia’s coolest exports. - Benji Heywood
KAL MARKS
“A Functional Earth”
For all their incessant pessimism, Kal Marks just want a better world for us all. It’s just humanity that’s fucking it up… but we press on. With their new album, Wasteland Baby, due out in September, the band are still concerned with the end of days brought on by tragic wars and environmental disasters, but they’ve matched decimation with locked-in grooves. “A Functional Earth,” the record’s second single has a big swarming rhythm, at times motorik (drummer Adam Berkowitz really dazzles throughout), yet pummeling with a sludgy boogie more often than not. The entire thing feels hammered with sonic resilience, a song that bounces on waves of twin guitar distortion, impassioned croons, and a psychedelic dissonance that feels unique to the ever expanding Kal Marks oeuvre. They’ve managed to reshape blistering noise rock and post-punk in a way that’s apocalyptic yet oddly upbeat, a good time amid the bad times. - Dan Goldin
SOFT SURFACE
“Turned Out Wrong”
Soft Surface is a new project from former Cende member Cameron Wisch as he switches coasts and embraces a sharply angular jangle and guitar forward turn that is full of surprises. He melds some classic rock inspirations in "Turned Out Wrong" with a bright approach to a song full of troubles and anxieties as distorted guitars drop in and out with a bit of debt towards masterful pop songsmiths like Matthew Sweet. There is a distinct power in play here and Wisch's forays into the higher range of his vocals melds delightfully with the fast paced clanging of the music. "Turned Out Wrong" is a welcome return from a musician whose strong grip on creating intricate and playful dynamics with his songwriting are a joy for the listener to behold listen after listen. - Kris Handel
THEY ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER
“Ana Orint" (feat. Sword II)
Cult-favorite Philly shoegaze outfit They Are Gutting A Body of Water continues to discard the rules in favor of their own, right down to the album rollout itself. Rather than amassing a record’s worth of songs, they feed their fans with ad-hoc singles. “ana orint” (feat. Sword II) presents an accessible entrypoint to their dazzling, sample-heavy catalog of distorted tracks with perplexing titles. Breezy downbeats lurch into boom-baps halfway through the three-minute track. Searing bass courses throughout. Whether through singer Doug Dulgarian’s record label, Julia’s War, or features with likeminded bands, TAGABOW’s best work is never done in isolation. - Giliann Karon
Further Listening:
22° HALO "Virtual You" | ABANDONCY "Battle Axe" | ALAN SPARHAWK "Get Still" | ALL FEELS "Possessed" | BEING DEAD "Nightvision" | BIG UPS "Grin (Sad13 Remix)" | BROADCAST "Come Back To Me (Demo)" | BUÑUEL "Drug Burn" | CHAIN CULT "What We Leave Behind" | COFFIN ROT "Hands of Death" | DUCKS LTD. "Audiotree Live" | DUST STAR "Shadow On The Hill b/w Be With You" | FANTASY OF A BROKEN HEART "Follow Your Captain" | FEELING FIGURES "Co-operator" | GABRIELA MCBRIDE "The Garrison" | GEORDIE GREEP "Holy, Holy" | GIANT WASTE OF MAN "Mutiny" | GLACIAL TOMB "Stygian Abattoir" | GUSTAF "I Trusted You" (Andy Kaufman cover) | THE HARD QUARTET "Rio's Song" | HEEMS "Flowers" | HOLIDAY MUSIC "Drinking Smoking Eating Red Meat" | JOANNA STERNBERG "A Country Dance" | JOYERIA "Troubled Youth (Demo)" | LA LUZ "Live on KEXP" | LAURA MARLING "No One's Gonna Love You Like I Can" | OPTIONS "Time's Up" | SIMA CUNNINGHAM "High Roller" | THURSTON MOORE "The Diver" | TRACE MOUNTAINS "Friend" | TROPICAL FUCK STORM "Two Afternoons (Live)" | TWINE "Future Exhales" | VERITY DEN "Household Changes" | WEBB CHAPEL "Shipping Containers Anonymous"