by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan)
Welcome to “Essentials,” a column for new music recommendations from one lifelong chucklehead with questionable taste. This column will be sporadic, but hopefully worth the wait. Presented as always in glorious alphabetical order.
Author’s Note: After a decade as the founder and editor of Post-Trash, I’ve been attempting to take a step back from the site, but have so far found myself constantly drawn back in. The compulsion to write about new music (with a primitive vocabulary and an utter lack of literary refinement) is deeply embedded in my ever aging soul. There’s an elegant saying “opinions are like assholes… everyone has one” and it rings true to this column. “Essentials” is but one person’s personal opinion. You might agree, you might not, and well, that’s the internet for you, but I sincerely hope you might find some new music you connect with. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music when you can.
The thing about doing this sporadically is that things tend to pile up, the pressure mounts (which is sort of the anthesis to the idea of this whole column… yet here we are), and people lose interest. I hope you haven’t lost your interest. This edition of “Essentials” includes a bunch of great art punk, post-punk, death metal, experimental pop, indie rock, and hardcore but probably not the art punk, post-punk, death metal, experimental pop, indie rock, and hardcore that you see regurgitated everywhere you look. I hope you enjoy and feel free to message me about anything you’ve discovered from this column that has you excited about music.
BIMBO
“Bimbo à Deux” EP
We were late to the party but it should be known, Marquette sibling duo Bimbo released one of our favorite records last year with their debut EP, Bimbology. The art rock band have been on tour pretty much ever since, but at some point they found time to record their second record, Bimbo à Deux, a triumphantly weird, vibrant, and imaginative take on the aforementioned art rock, minimalist punk, and noise rock. With riffs that are as disarming as they are immediate and drums that seem to simultaneously set and dismantle the structures, Gretchen and Dawson McKenzie manage to contort their songs while retaining vivid clarity. There’s a sharp sense of irreverence to Gretchen’s lyrics, but you’d hardly know it from the visceral delivery. Bimbo match feral intensity with playful arrangements, ripping apart an underlining pop simplicity in favor of charming discordance. Bimbo à Deux is undeniably an expansion of their sound, reaching further into throbbing and hypnotic territory but every bit as crushing and direct as their debut. Bimbo are a band you need to be listening to.
BRNDA
“Peach Pit”
It’s been four (very) long years since BRNDA released Do You Like Salt?, a record that brought the band’s idiosyncratic post-punk to a wider audience, but hold on to your butts because the DC based quartet is back. Set to release Total Pain on September 12th via Crafted Sounds (Forty Winks, Buddie, The Zells), it would seem the time gestating between records was well worth the wait. “Peach Pit,” the album’s lead single is a testament to their tightly wound art punk propulsion, a song that takes pop clarity and wraps it into a springy coil. They groove and weave, darting between Leah Gage’s infectious melodies, gang vocal harmonies, and soaring guitars that resonate with the glow of slacker punk perfection. While the pain of the world’s horrific reality can feel inescapable, BRNDA offer us two and a half minutes of sonic bliss.
EDITRIX
“The Big E” LP
Editrix have returned! Three years after their second album, the trio are back and as astounding as ever. The Big E is an unbridled vision of camaraderie within the band, each of the members so profoundly brilliant in shaping the erratic puzzle of their sound. While we all know Wendy Eisenberg as a virtuosic and ingenious guitarist, the world would be remiss to not praise the playing of bassist Steve Cameron and drummer Josh Daniel, an accomplished rhythm section capable of swinging between prog-centric exuberance and a big brute rhythmic onslaught on a whim. Together the group play an ecstatic blend of noise rock, art punk, and brainy post-hardcore, combusting throughout The Big E, a massively enjoyable album that’s as sincere as it is caustic and playful. Editrix come together like superglue to throw expectation off its axis, but dear lord, this album sure does shred. Give them all the flowers. Editrix forever.
EROSION
“Gargantuan Wound”
Seven years ago Erosion released their incredible and impenetrable second album, Maximum Suffering, the final release from Hydra Head Records and one of our absolute favorites of 2018. They’ve been relatively quiet ever since (though Nick Yacyshyn has been busy with SUMAC), but this year brings us not one, but two new releases from the band in the form of a full length split with Altered Dead and a new full length, Invasive Species, due out September 5th via Mechanized Apparatus Revolt. “Gargantuan Wound,” the album’s lead single proves that Erosion remain one of hardcore’s most violent, crusty, and ruthless bands. There’s a sense of palatable sensory overload as the band grind and spit their way into d-beat fury amid a genuine avalanche of blistering riffs. It’s music to fry your circuits, blow out your speakers, to tear a hole in the fabric of society. No one does it quite like Erosion.
HARRY SINGS!
“Matchstick Crater Cerebellum”
Harry Sings!, the solo project of Uranium Club’s Harry Wohl, is getting ready to release Christie's Toy Box on August 8th via Blushing Grinning. He’s already proved himself capable of writing immaculate indie-leaning punk tunes on the last two albums from the Uranium Club, but lead single “Matchstick Crater Cerebellum” is its own kind of stunning, a stripped back acoustic song that’s delicate but nuanced, at times fragile yet vivid, the construction sweeping into our subconscious. It’s great, and we can’t wait to hear more.
MALFORMED
“Confinement of Flesh” LP
PUSTULANT FLESH
“March of the Ravenous Dead”
SEWER HAUL
“Scalp Split Open”
As far as death metal goes, this summer belongs to Extremely Rotten Productions, the Copenhagen based label lovingly run by Undergang’s David Mikkelsen. The new and upcoming albums from Malformed, Pustulant Flesh, and Sewer Haul might not be the highest profile metal records, but they are most definitely the ones worth paying attention to. First out the putrid gate is Helsinki’s Malformed, a death metal band that’s equal parts technical and obliterating. Confinement of Flesh is the quartet’s full length debut, a brutalist convulsion of rotted terror and brilliantly executed precision. The centerpiece of the three records comes from Copenhagen’s Pustulant Flesh and their debut album, Gurgling Pustulence. In case the title doesn’t tip you off, this one sounds utterly disgusting (and we mean that as the highest of compliment). The young band come out full formed, rising out of the festering ooze with shifting tempos, embracing doom and sludge one moment as they lurch into grinding momentum the next. The record is delightfully vile, one of the most promising debuts you’ll hear this year. If your skull isn’t yet crushed under the weight of it all, Sewer Haul return with Torso Mangled Beyond Repair, their second EP in as many years. There’s little that can prepare you for the sheer filth and corpse-feed intensity of the lead single, a gore-splattered track that grinds with unhinged fury and primal menace.
JOBBER
“Pillman’s Got A Gun”
Set to release their full length debut next month, Brooklyn’s Jobber share new single “Pillman’s Got A Gun,” offering a different look into Jobber To The Stars than the lead single. While “Nightmare” sprang to life with a Rentals tinged sense of muscular power-pop, their latest opts for a gauzier approach, a big blistering ballad with tidal guitars, colossal harmonies, and intricate drums that all spiral together with a slow burn. Everyone loves a spacey grunge ballad (think Hum, Garbage, Pixies) and Jobber don’t hold back. Kate Meizner and Michael Falcone double up on the hooks, with a chorus that seems to grow directly from another chorus (like The Thing… but songwriting). Smooth as it all might be, the band let the song soar, ripping into riffs and dazzling drum fills that burst with feedback and personality.
LUCRECIA DALT
“Caes” (feat. Camille Mandoki)
I would be happy to live in a future shaped by musicians like Lucrecia Dalt and her music forward thinking, experimental, and elegant music. Her upcoming record A Danger To Ourselves is a world unto itself, a surrealist blend of avant-garde pop, electronic jazz, and dreamy detachment that sounds ambitious, cohesive, and utterly daring. What’s most important about it though is that Dalt is a great songwriter, her abstractions aren’t challenging for the sake of being challenging, it’s all in service to the songs, the atmospheres, and the moods they create. “Caes” is beautifully disconnected, a song that echoes in tight confines, bouncing and bubbling with a profound focus on the rhythm, the tempo slow but lively, both haunting and mesmerizing. Paired with a sense of dissonance and vocal harmonies that flitter between lush and clipped, there’s an impeccable alien glow to it all.
MILKED
“Slow Pyre”
Over the past ten years Milked has become the artistic catch-all for Kelly Johnson’s (Geronimo!) music, a source of creative freedom. It’s been seven years since Milked released their last album, but Johnson and his frequent collaborators are back with a new album, Forgotten Pleasures. Due out August 29th, its a welcome resurgence, a big blistering record of FM gold alternative rock that’s more than happy to wander down rabbit holes with kaleidoscopic dexterity. “Slow Pyre,” one of the album’s sonically unique moments, pairs Johnson together with Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, Sad13) on a song that comes unglued from the start, an art pop odyssey with shack shaking programmed beats, plucked strings, warm guitars, flickering samples, and a melodic refrain that seems to pay tribute to The Vaselines. There’s a warped dance groove that underlines the structure, a cosmic aerobic workout, and yet Johnson and co’s surrealist vision is still very much “modern” rock, a borderless (if not entirely indicative) peak into the wide world of Forgotten Pleasures.
MY GENERATION
“Want It”
Los Angeles’ My Generation are a new band comprised of N.A.S. (P22, Purity) Sara Mayako (Mayako XO, Behavior Mayako XO) and Sophie Weil (Syko Friend, Pink Trash Can), which is reason enough to listen to their debut single, “Want It,” and hot damn, it’s a great song. Released via Post Present Medium, the trio keep it skeletal but radiant, drifting on a singular progression that feels enveloping in its tone and repetition, the perfect pocket for the band’s gorgeously dry vocals. Sparse yet continuously interesting, everything seems to pop and scrape in perfect harmony, from the simplicity of the rhythm to the slow drawn melodies, it’s stark and laid back but sonically arresting. “Want It” has that detached sense of cool that makes you want to play it on repeat, lost in the shimmering indifference. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long to hear more from the band.
PILE
“Bouncing In Blue”
Some things should be simple. Someone could say “hey, there’s a new PIle album out next month,” and then everyone would just run to their favorite store (online or otherwise) and pick up said Pile album. That record, Sunshine and Balance Beams, is due out on August 15th via Sooper Records, and “Bouncing In Blue,” the latest single is a lovely textural odyssey, a soft mirage that eventually gnashes its teeth. With an orchestral structure of piano, strings, and Rick Maguire’s encapsulating vocals, the general ease eventually evaporates, the tension returning with a pounding rhythm and palpitating crescendo that crashes like the ocean waves in a storm. It’s a slow build that keeps on building, harnessed with the control and grace that shines upon Pile’s structural command.
TOP DOLLAR
“Objects of Misfortune” LP
I don’t know all that much about Top Dollar beyond the fact that their new album, Objects of Misfortune, absolutely rules. The New York band play hardcore the way it was always intended, with a reckless aggression and manic energy. Brash and blistering, the album is pure carnage and deep grooves, raw and jagged, recorded with a minor tape hiss that only enhances the music, a brute force of maximum velocity punk. Released via Richmond’s 11 PM Records (Coffee Stain, Faze, The Losers), there isn’t a moment wasted as the band whip from one corrosive dirge to the next, a tornado of riffs that split the difference beat down hardcore and chaotic unpredictability. Like a stampede witnessed at close proximity, Top Dollar’s sonic assault is welcomingly relentless.
Automatic have officially announced their third album, Is It Now?, out September 26th via Stones Throw. The Los Angeles based trio’s latest single, “Mercury,” takes a psychedelic approach to their kinetic post-punk, a space-age machination of bouncing synths and slow drawn melodies that sputter and hum.
The trajectory of the Deftones over the past few decades has been nothing short of amazing. They’ve been unapologetically themselves for thirty years nd yet, they’ve never been bigger. In 2025, it would seem that every band wants to sound like Deftones, and well… the Deftones are still the best version of the Deftones, and they are back with their tenth album Private Music, due out on August 22nd. Lead single “My Mind Is A Mountain” feels quintessential, a crushing, stuttering, beast of melodic fury and the band’s signature layered assault. It reminds me of a song that could have been on Diamond Eyes, and that ain’t too shabby.
While we anxiously await a new record from modern thrash titans Enforced, they’ve shared a cover of Repulsion’s “Radiation Sickness” as part of The Dogs of Hope, a benefit compilation for shelter animals in rural Alabama. Needless to say, the cover is a ripper, all scorched earth and decimation… for a good cause!
Hyperdontia, one of modern death metal’s most dependable bands, return with Dormant Scourge, a skull shattering new 7” out on Desiccated Records. As one might hope, the songs are winding with vile riffs, gurgling ferocity, and ever shifting rhythms. Like a mutant energizing on society’s decay, the band simply ravage each track, a cavalcade of sickening twists and turns as cavernous and rotten as they are complex and abrasive.
Following on from 2023’s great Club Hits record, Sydney’s R.M.F.C. is back with “Ecstatic Strife,” a hot new single (due out via the incomparable Anti Fade Records) from Buz Clatworthy’s one man garage punk hit factory. The two song single’s title-track is out now, a refreshing rumble of a tune with huge clamoring melodies, plodding bass, and the breeziest of hooks. It’s locked in but rattled, an organic piece of no bullshit rock music.
The past month has delivered some rather excellent live releases from Thank with the release of Live @ Wharf Chambers, which captures an in-studio session for Radio X, as well as “Handsome Crying Man,” a new song the band have been playing live, released as part of Damaged Goods’ Fundraiser Compilation Vol. 2. The caustic tongue-in-cheek charm of Thank’s music is ever apparent on both recordings, with the noise rock band coming unglued in due time over sludgy rhythms, deranged dance punk, and swarming distortion.
Titanic, the duo of Mabe Fratti and I. la Católica, make captivating music. There’s an unreal quality to it all that keeps your ears glued to what comes next. Set to release their new album HAGEN on September 5th via Unheard of Hope, the band have shared the record’s second single, “La Dueña,” an emotionally gripping song that makes use of space and atmosphere in ways that add to its heavy beauty. Fratti’s voice is like a gorgeous incantation played over the slow drawn strings and the clamoring rhythm, a lightness in the shadows.
There’s a lot of wonderful music out there. Sometimes you have to dig a bit deeper to find it. Sometimes you might not like something at first, but there’s a magnetism that keeps you coming back until you eventually love it. That’s the best feeling. Immediacy can be overrated.
I’m exhausted and did not edit this in the slightest. My apologies for that, but the sentiment should remain the same.