by 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.
ALAN SPARHAWK & TRAMPLED BY TURTLES
“Stranger”
It should be said that Alan Sparhawk has most definitely earned the right to do whatever he wants. Following the tragic loss of his partner Mimi Parker and the subsequent dissolution of Low, Sparhawk released his first ever solo record, White Roses, My God, an album that certainly caught many of his fans off guard with its electronic beats and auto-tuned vocals. Low were never afraid to push boundaries, but Sparhawk’s solo debut felt alien to his previous work. A year later and he’s back with a new album, With Trampled by Turtles, which as the title suggests, pairs Sparhawk together with Minnesota’s own Trampled By Turtles. “Stranger” finds the group working together to create earthy folk inspired rock, with the emotional weight of Sparhawk’s voice once again gripping and resonant. It’s a gorgeous song that’s both lush and weighty. - DG
BILL ORCUTT GUITAR QUARTET
“On The Horizon (Live)”
Bill Orcutt has a habit of making the avant-garde feel familiar to the rock fan. His 2022 album Music For Four Guitars brought together a quartet of guitar mavens (Orcutt, Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish) for a series of composed yet exploratory guitar pieces, with a distinctive blend of dissonance and harmony, noise and melody. The energy and chemistry of these players is a thing to behold, and in the spirit of the “unofficial bootleg,” experimental Chicago label Hausu Mountain is releasing a recording of the Quartet’s live set at Constellation from May 3, 2024. Teaser single “On the Horizon” tells you everything you need to know: what on record is a tight 2-minute jaunt, live becomes a 12-minute sojourn of exquisite tones. The foursome is noisy but articulate as they find beauty in the full range of guitar sonics – humming amps, harp harmonics, microtuned open strings. A choice tape, the recording transports you as the players envelope you. - Matt Watton
BLOOD MONOLITH
“Prayer To Crom”
A week after announcing the highly anticipated Caustic Wound album, Profound Lore Records introduce us to Washington, DC’s Blood Monolith, a new band featuring members of Ulthar, Undeath, Genocide Pact, and Nails among others. Set to release their full length debut, The Calling Of Fire, on May 16th (with artwork from none other than Rudimentary Peni’s Nick Blinko), the band come out bludgeoning on “Prayer To Crom,” a beastly death metal song that’s throwing haymakers with every possible limb and then some. It’s brutal and claustrophobic, stampeding like a demonic presence with its head cut off, this one rattles and grinds as it shifts through dexterous rhythms, dizzying riffs, and a general putridity that should melt the paint from the walls. Barbaric and brilliant in equal measure, it’s one hell of an introduction. - DG
DEERHOOF
“Immigrant Songs”
After three glorious decades of uncompromising and delightfully damaged art pop, Deerhoof remain a national treasure. With their values firmly in tact and their music forever pushing and pulling itself off of the axis of least resistance, anyone who has witnessed them live knows that the visionary band simply seem to ooze creativity. Noble and Godlike in Ruin is the band’s 20th album (that’s twenty records without a dud in sight), due out April 25th via Joyful Noise Recordings (Finom, Wendy Eisenberg, Fang Island), and it would seem they’re still dismantling dream pop, prog, indie rock, and noise pop into complex yet vivid new shapes. “Immigrant Songs” is the album’s expansive closer, a song that opens with a comforting melodic ease and an anthemic structure before eventually coming unglued in a tidal wave of blistering dissonance. - DG
FIB
“PS”
Philadelphia quartet Fib are buzz band that lives up the hype. “PS,” the second single off their debut Heavy Lifting (out Apr. 25) showcases how the band gels with the current musical moment without being bogged down by its idioms and cliches. Chorusy guitar, booming drums, and sensitive vocals reel you in with a poppy hook that remains somehow elusive. It may initially sound dangerously close to nu-gaze, but the track has that je ne sais quoi that feels special. And – spoiler alert – just after the midway point, the band seems to feel just as uneasy with the shoegaze sounds, and so radically course corrects: a brutish bassline railroads the tempo and the song devolves into a skitterish post-punk exercise. Fib avoids the hackneyed and the gimmicky while staying fun and unexpected. - Matt Watton
MOONTYPE
“Four Hands II”
The great Moontype have returned. After sharing “Long Country” last month (the band’s first new music in four years), the band have announced their second album, I Let The Wind Push Down On Me. Due out May 23rd via Orindal Records (Tara Jane O’Neil, Ruth Garbus, Lisa/Liza), the Chicago based quartet’s music is as stunning as ever, led by Margaret McCarthy’s immaculate songwriting, a mix of glistening beauty and compositional grit. Moontype have always been adept at lulling you in only to subtly let the ground give way, and “Four Hands ii” does just that. It’s a sweet art folk song at first glance, but there’s so much nuance to it, the layers toppling over with grace and precision. It’s a perfect balance of gentle and intricate. - DG
TROPICAL FUCK STORM
“Bloodsport”
There’s no telling exactly what Tropical Fuck Storm are capable of or where they’re going next, but it’s usually best to just give into their combustion. A month after the release of “Goon Show,” the band announce their long awaited fourth album, Fairyland Codex, set for release on June 20th via Fire Recordings (Deradoorian, Monde UFO, Memorials). “Bloodsport” is built on an chaotic groove, a disco rhythm contorted, warped, and melted into bubbling psych pop that’s both imaginative and mesmerizing. Led by Erica Dunn, the song jitters around a noise pop core as they layer in razor sharp hooks and detached riffs that ride a fine line between atonal and melodically hypnotic. It’s a mutant pop-centric ripper delivered with a discordant funk in a way that only Tropical Fuck Storm could manage. - DG
Further Listening:
ADRIAN YOUNGE "Nós Somos As Estrelas" | ANCIENT DEATH "Unspoken Oath" | BIG|BRAVE "innominate Nº vi" | BNNY "Good Stuff (Edit)" (feat. Wild Pink) | BOLDY JAMES "Street Cred" | BUFFET LUNCH "Whitsun Sound" | CHE NOIR & SUPERIOR "Destiny Rose" | CHILD BITE "Smog & Viscera" EP | CLUB NIGHT "Judah" | DERADOORIAN "Any Other World" | DOOMSDAY "Pain Dweller" | DROOGIE OTIS "Everything Designer" (feat. Boldy James) | ESTHER ROSE "Had To" | FATBOI SHARIF & DRIVEBY "Swim Team Audible Function" | JOLIE LAIDE "Holly" | LUNAR VACATION "Lights Off" | MAMALARKY "Anhedonia" | MELVINS "King of Rome" | MIEN "Silent Golden" | MOTHER NATURE "Journey to the Corner of the Room" | NYLON "Inflatable World" EP | POND 1000 "That Mall Was Mine" | PREMROCK “Flight Risk“ | PREOCCUPATIONS "Bastards" | PREVIOUS INDUSTRIES "Evergreen Plaza" EP | SNAPPED ANKLES "Smart World" | SQUID "Cro-Mangon Man" | STEPMOTHER "Vacant State" | THA GOD FAHIM & NICHOLAS CRAVEN "Dump Gawd: Hyperbolic Time Chamber Rap 5" EP | THA GOD FAHIM & NICHOLAS CRAVEN "Dump Gawd: Hyperbolic Time Chamber Rap 6" EP | THE WATERBOYS "Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend" (feat. Fiona Apple) | WEYES BLOOD "Shilo" (Neil Diamond cover) | WILLIE THE KID & REAL BAD MAN "Maxwell's Peacoat Collection" | WISHY "Over and Over" | YOUNG WIDOWS "The Holy Net"