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.
AMEROL
“Demo CS”
Ashley Ack has cemented herself over the years among my favorite all time punk vocalists, from the acrobatic perfection of Cold Meat to the all too short lived Runt and the more experimental Krimi, her voice is at once threatening and sarcastic, tough as nails but full of character. Ack’s latest hardcore band, AMEROL, have released their Demo CS via the great Helta Skelta Records (Hacker, Gaffer, Krimi), and it’s everything we hoped it might be. The band play furious no-frills hardcore with bleeding riffs and skull cracking rhythms, digging into the ruthless nature and rawness of early 80’s USHC, but ignited in a way that feels unique to Australian punk these days. Ack and company go full throttle from the get go, kicking down doors and railing against a forever broken system. - DG
CHIME OBLIVION
“Kiss Her Or Be Her”
In case John Dwyer wasn’t busy enough with Osees and Deathgod Corp (fka Castle Face Records), he’s also found time to experiment with friends and peers in an ever shifting array of line-ups (Bent Arcana, Witch Egg, Gong Splat, etc) since over the past five years. While most of those projects focus on outré and experimental music, CHIME OBLIVION, his latest project is firmly rooted in “weirdo” punk, perfectly off-kilter and incessantly itchy. The band - comprised of Dwyer, David Barbarossa (Fine Young Cannibals), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers), Tom Dolas (Osees), and the ever charismatic H.L. Nelly (whose FKA Smiley released a fantastic record earlier this year) - seem to both gel and splinter in all the right places on “Kiss Her Or Be Her,” an elastic punk tune that lands somewhere between the joyous energy of The B-52s and the corrosion of The Slits. - DG
GOLD DUST
“An Early Translation of a Later Work“ (feat. J Mascis)
Psych-folk balladeers Gold Dust has evolved from the solo endeavor of erstwhile punk Stephen Pierce into a truly collective effort. Newly announced third album, In the Shade of the Living Light, is their first release since 2022, and it promises to tickle the ear with 12-string jangle, sensitive heaviness, and trippy energy. First single "An Early Translation of a Later Work" taps into the heady vibes of Fairport Convention or The Bevis Frond, with delicate layers of vocals and softly shredded guitar and banjo creating a "kaleidoscopic mess." Fellow Western-Mass rocker J Mascis puts his stamp of approval on the album and graces the track with a totally out-there electric sitar solo that turns a liquid light show into an aural phenomenon. - Matt Watton
KALEIDOSCOPE
“Cities of Fear”
Hot damn, Kaleidoscope are back. It’s been five years since the band released the Decolonization EP, but the members have stayed busy during that time playing with Straw Man Army and Tower 7. Returning to Kaleidoscope, it would seem they are more fired up than ever on Cities of Fear, due out April 25th via La Vida Es Un Mus Discos (Tàrrega 91, Exo, S.H.I.T.), a record that channels primal anarcho-punk into raw and hissing hardcore. Recorded over the course of a few days, the title track sets the tone, a blistering socio-political that scraps and shreds with guitars that burn their way into your retinas. This is unglued hardcore that still understands nuance, the song is pointed at our dismal world and the struggle that buries so many, but it’s also impressively dynamic in structure and tone. - DG
OSSUARY
“Volitional Entropy”
Fans of death metal at its most putrid and septic can rejoice, the long awaited full length from Wisconsin’s Ossuary is soon crawling out from the primordial ooze. Set to release Abhorrent Worship on May 23rd via Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Darkness Shall Rise, their wretched fusion of doom and death metal feels as violently cinematic as it does disgusting on lead single “Volitional Entropy,” lurching its way forward from the bowls of despair and depravity. As the drums manage to grind in slow motion, the band lay waste with riffs that feel pulled through the thickest sludge of hell’s most rotten swamps. The bile inducing vocals cut beneath the lumbering heaviness, croaking with disgust as the walls seem to close in all around us. - DG
RED STAMP
“Dancing With My Baby”
Red Stamp is a new collaborative project led by songwriters Aoife Nessa Frances and Núria Graham together with drummer Brendan Doherty, a gorgeous pairing of Frances and Graham’s psych folk and art pop inclinations. “Dancing With My Baby,” the group’s debut single, was recorded together with Sam Evian, capturing the layered textures and gentle grooves of their sound. With lyrics blurring between Catalan and English, they weave dreamy harmonies and lounge pop rhythmic flourishes to hypnotic effect, lulling us into their shifting sonic world where hooks abound, from the swirling resonance to the gorgeous chord progressions. Lush yet calm and cool as a cucumber, we can’t wait to hear more from Red Stamp, a perfect pairing of songwriters. - DG
SALEM 66
“Lucky Penny” (reissue)
Salem 66 are long overdue for a some love. A staple of the 80s college rock scene in Boston, the female-fronted quartet tamed their post-punk impulses with melody, artiness, and unflinching sense of cool. But they’ve now become a near-forgotten also-ran of Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, and Mission of Burma. Thankfully, Don Giovanni Records has decided to remedy this sitch, putting all four of their albums on streaming for the first time and issuing a new compilation, Salt. There's also a recently unearthed music video for “Lucky Penny,” of off 1988’s Natural Disasters, National Treasures. The track captures what the band is all about. Scraggly guitars coalesce around a catchy melody, as vocalists Beth Kaplan and Judy Grunwald meld throaty half harmonies. Too much attitude to be jangle pop, too much tenderness to be proto-riot grrrl, Salem 66 pioneered a unique sound in early indie rock that more folks need to be hip to. - Matt Watton
STRESS POSITIONS
"Blood Money"
Following the blistering destruction of their full length debut, Harsh Reality, Chicago’s Stress Positions return with Human Zoo, a new mini LP due out May 16th via Three One G (Deaf Club, Haunted Horses, Paper Mice). Their corrosive brand of hardcore is as combustible as ever, erupting with seismic force and never slowing to watch the decimation as it unfolds. The band’s (which features the former members of C.H.E.W.) onslaught it brutally direct, immediately launching into a full on stampede of furious drums and paint peeling guitars. By the time Stephanie Brooks’ vocals come howling over the carnage at breakneck speed, the entire song is pulsating, deceptively warping tempos and subverting expectations. Just when you settle into one groove, Stress Positions have frantically moved forward, a hurtling force of unstoppable momentum. - DG
SUPERCHUNK
“Bruised Lung“ (feat. Rosali)
90s elder statesmen Superchunk know exactly who they are - raucous riffing and melodic songcraft, rah-rah vocal energy and cool middle-8s. In anticipation of their upcoming US tour, they've dropped a delightfully rocking collab with now-established alternative phenom Rosali, whose 2024 smash Bite Down came out on Merge Records (and who now resides on Superchunk's home turf in North Carolina). While "Bruised Lung" is very much a Superchunk song - Mac McCaughan's nasally vocals and crunchy guitar chords are unmistakable - Rosali adds some panache with subtle harmonies and a bit of tasteful guitar licking of her own. As fun and crisp as anything off of No Pocky for Kitty, it's hard to think of a better way for Superchunk to declare, "Yeah, we still got it." - Matt Watton
Further Listening:
AISLE KNOT “Withholding Nature” LP | BEDRIDDEN "Philadelphia Get Me Through" | BILLIAM & THE SPLIT BILLS "Hit The Brakes (Live)" | BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD "For The Cold Country" | THE BUG CLUB "Jealous Boy" | CLAMM "No Idea" | ERICA ESO “Look Around You” | FUGITIVE BUBBLE "EFTIO" / "Steel Dust Mites" | GENTLE LEADER XIV "Woman Walking" | GREAT GRANDPA "Never Rest" | HARRY THE NIGHTGOWN "Bell Boy" | HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE "The Idiot / The Car Knows the Way" | LABRADOR "Dry Out In June" | MCKINLEY DIXON “Could’ve Been Different” (feat. Blu & Shamir) | MORTUARIA "Violently Ill" | POPULATION II "La Trippance" | RAZ FRESCO & FUTUREWAVE “Ok Let’s Go” | REDMAN "Lalala (DJ Premier Remix)" (feat. Method Man) | RICHARD DAWSON "More Than Real" | RINCS “Swimming Pool Disco” EP | THE SERFS “Bodies In Water“ | TÀRREGA 91 “No És Casa Teva“ | THA GOD FAHIM & DREGA33 "Lethal Weapon" EP | THA GOD FAHIM & NICHOLAS CRAVEN "Dump Gawd: Hyperbolic Time Chamber Rap 7" EP | THA GOD FAHIM & NICHOLAS CRAVEN "Dump Gawd: Hyperbolic Time Chamber Rap 8" EP | THIS IS LORELEI "Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version)" | TORTOISE "Oganesson" | VIAGRA BOYS "The Bog Body" | WHY BOTHER? "Listen"