by Benji Heywood, Dan Goldin, and Matt Watton
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.
BAD BREEDING
“Blood Manifest”
Stevenage’s Bad Breeding have been burning the flag as one of hardcore’s best anarcho punk bands for over a decade at this point, expanding and reshaping their sound over the years without ever dampening their intensity. With an iron clad distrust for corrupt governments, corporate greed, and a rigged system that only favors the rich, Bad Breeding’s records are appropriately dense and brutal. Following last year’s brilliantly corrosive Contempt LP, the band return with Blood Manifest, a new EP due out March 21st via Standard Process. The record’s title track is an immediate kick to the teeth, a piercing and stomping hardcore song that’s unhinged in every way. The frenetic pace and blistering guitars bulldoze and demolish everything in sight, its guttural and chaotic, leveling everything to rubble. - DG
CORPUS OFFAL
“Corpus Offal”
Coming at us with the eponymous track from their eponymous album (a move that will forever remind me of Black Sabbath), Corpus Offal have arrived. Born from the ashes of the great Cerebral Rot, that corpse wasn’t left to decay for long as Ian Schwab (guitar/vocals) and Clyle Lindstrom (guitar) formed Corpus Offal, releasing their demo of festering death metal last year on an unsuspecting public. With their full length debut out on March 21st via 20 Buck Spin (Immortal Bird, Laceration, Maul), the album’s first single is colossal and menacing, a violent dirge of gut wrenching brutality and splintering riffs that hit with the subtelty of an impending apocalypse. The thudding rhythms feel akin to being chased by a maniac with a machete and the riffs ain’t too much safer. Tangled in demonic decomposition, “Corpus Offal” is a lesson in structural death metal whiplash. - DG
DANA GAVANSKI
“Hang In For Us Both”
With Again Again out in just a few weeks (on March 14th), Dana Gavanski has shared “Hang In For Us Both,” the latest single from her upcoming EP. Based on a rekindled love for piano compositions, each of the songs we’ve heard thus far have been built on a simple yet gorgeous framework of vocals and piano, but there’s plenty of melodic nuance and swirling art pop charm to be found on the sweeping new single. “Hang In For Us Both” is vibrant yet delicate, bright but somber, opening with a punchy refrain before settling into the introspective verses, highlighted by Gavanski’s stunning vocal inflections and a cosmic bridge that transcends this realm into the next, if only momentarily before we’ve been brought back to reality. - DG
MCKINLEY DIXON
“Sugar Water” (feat. Quelle Chris & Anjimile)
Last week brought us the announcement of McKinley Dixon’s highly anticipated fifth album, Magic, Alive!, set for release on June 6th via City Slang (Lambrini Girls, Pom Pom Squad, King Hannah), and while we still have a while to wait, lead single “Sugar Water” is as great an introduction as they come. Dixon comes out spitting about cherished memories tinged with insight and hard-won poetic wisdom, delivered with an effortlessly winding cadence over a jazzy live-wire beat that’s propelled by dazzling drums, both nimble and booming. There’s a impeccable musicality to it all, a trademark of Dixon’s exceptional catalog. Together with Anjimile on the hook and a guest verse from the great Quelle Chris, the pair of MCs weave textural and amorphous verses together with quick and focused bars, ducking and jabbing with prismatic effect. - DG
PORRIDGE RADIO
“Machine Starts To Sing”
Porridge Radio’s final album is profoundly good, a record that found the London based quartet approaching perfection, as songs blurred edges while sharpening others. There’s a stream-of-conscious quality to it, an evolution that unfolds from fiery beginnings to tranquil restraint, often captured with an emotional catharsis from Dana Margolin’s impassioned vocals. From those same sessions comes The Machine Starts To Sing, a companion EP that (tragically) serves as the project’s final release. With four more songs cut from the same cloth as Clouds In The Sky…, Porridge Radio’s depth shines in heightened sensibilities. Take the title track, a song that skitters and grooves on a sultry rhythm, bent with an almost progressive structure. It’s solid gold indie rock that makes you want to scream, “holy shit, this song is incredible” (but that’s not good “journalism”). As we skip down the path with vivid monochrome imagery, Margolin wraps her brilliant run-on lyrics into knots, the tension of the music responding in kind. It’s hard to believe they’re calling it a day, but they leave us as one of modern indie’s absolute best. - DG
PRIVATE LIVES
“Psychic Beat”
Montreal’s Private Lives, like other cool bands on the Feel It Records roster, tap into a past era of punk and garage, heavy on killer hooks and skronky guitars and good, clean fun. They’ve announced their sophomore release, Salt of the Earth (out Mar. 21) and welcome new single ‘Psychic Beat’. In what could be a lost Nuggets gem, the group kicks out a bluesy jam with retro guitar sounds and catchy vibes. Jackie Blenkarn’s vocals bring a no-nonsense, rah-rah energy that is infectious, while the stark instrumental gets you groovin’ and movin’. The sock-hop goes wild when aptly named Chance Hutchison rips his Chuck Berry/Billy Zoom guitar solo. Can’t wait to boogie to the rest of the album. - Matt Watton
TROPICAL FUCK STORM
“Goon Show”
It’s the golden age of assholes. So proclaims Tropical Fuck Storm’s Gareth Liddiard during the opening woozy stomp of “Goon Show,” the Melbourne band’s latest single. After some time off for cancer recovery, touring, and whatever it is they do to construct their psych-rock alchemy, TFS are back in the recording business, singing with Fire Records. “Goon Show” is a cough syrup fever dream with the tone knob dialed down to zero. Over primate percussion, overdriven synths and some zany guitar spurts, Liddiard trades quips with bassist Fiona Kitschin and guitarist Erica Dunn about our dystopian world. It’s not feel-good music, but it has a certain slow-for-a-glimpse-of-the-car-crash charm. With a tour announced for this summer with fellow guitar experimentalist Bill Orcutt, “Goon Show” is hopefully a sign of more new music to come from one of the world’s great rock bands. - Benji Heywood
WISHY
“Fly”
Indianapolis rockers Wishy are coming off the heels of their banner debut, Triple Seven, which got some serious end-of-year love – and rightly so. Wasting no time, they’re back with a new EP, Planet Popstar (out April 25th). Their music has all the best elements of shoegaze and dream pop, but their creativity and hookiness makes these monikers a bit unhelpful. New single “Fly” leans on the dreamier side of the spectrum, with a buoyant drum loop, chimey acoustic guitar cycle, and effervescent vocals. Some tenderly distorted guitar is the icing on the cake. A kindred sound to contemporaries (and tour-mates) Momma, the track at times sounds like it could be a 90s college-radio crossover hit, at others like it could be a Pinback-esque post-rock hit. We should be grateful that Wishy has so many cool tunes in the tank. - Matt Watton
Further Listening:
ADRIAN YOUNGE "Ainda Preciso do Sol" | ANCIENT DEATH "Breaking The Barriers of Hope" | BIG|BRAVE "innominate Nº ii" | CHRIS BROKAW "8 or 9 Things" | CURREN$Y & HARRY FRAUD "Dream Machines" (feat. Premo Rice) | EEL MEN "Sore Eyes" | ELIZA NIEMI "Melodies Like Mark" | EVINSPRAGG "Soliloquy Part One: Thinking Out Loud" | FIB "Mutuals" | KIM DEAL "Big Ben Beat" | KING HANNAH "Leftovers" | MAMALARKY "#1 Best Of All Time" | MELVINS "Victory of the Pyramids" | MESS ESQUE "Let Me Know You" | MIA JUNE "Brain Like Computer" | MIEN "Empty Sun" | MOTHER NATURE “An Infinite Sphere” | MOTORBIKE "Currency" | NIGHTOSPHERE "Poverty Policy" | NYXY NYX "Danny, Don't Swing That Knife" | PERFUME GENIUS "No Front Teeth" (feat. Aldous Harding) | PYREX "Coma" | ROBBER ROBBER "Backup Plan - This Is Lorelei Version" | SNAPPED ANKLES "Pay The Rent" | VACUOUS "Contraband" | WENDY EISENBERG "I Don't Miss You" | WRETCHED BLESSING "You'll Bleed Out of Control" EP (Deftones covers)