by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan) and Niccolo Porcello (@hont_dog)
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 late hours of the night and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking it all out. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.
ALDOUS HARDING
“Last Stop”
After the release of two perfect albums in Designer and Warm Chris (each a true masterpiece), Aldous Harding is set to release her fifth full length, Train on the Island via 4AD (Dry Cleaning, Big Thief, Kim Deal) on May 8th. To call it my most anticipated album of the year would be an understatement, the feeling of what it might sound like all too inviting. Harding’s idiosyncratic blend of folk, art pop, and general irreverence remains in fine form on the upcoming record’s lead single “Last Stop,” a song that’s equal parts gorgeous, engaging, and just slightly off center (in the best of ways). There’s a detached pop glow to the song that sparks with immediacy even as it wiggles around in its skin. The video, directed by Michelle Henning, also wiggles around as Harding herself some serious interpretive dance moves. - DG
BIG|BRAVE
“the ineptitude for mutual discernment”
Following last year’s experimental, instrumental, and largely improvised OST, Montreal’s Big|Brave are back with their next proper (read as: slightly less amorphous) album, in grief or in hope. Due out on June 12th via Thrill Jockey Records (Marisa Anderson, Lightning Bolt, More Eaze), their attention to detail remains both heaven sent and claustrophobic, pairing together droning distortion, atonal dissonance, and Robin Wattie’s beautiful voice emerging from the rubble. With no definable rhythm, “the ineptitude for mutual discernment” simply blankets our conscience, a rolling plume of destruction and detachment that moves at its own languid pace. The burn of the guitars feels impossibly dense, made of cinders and ash, and yet its balanced with the softer (but no less caustic) tone of Wattie’s slow drawn vocals. - DG
FUGAZI
“Albini Sessions” LP
Everyone with a passing interest in Fugazi knows the story. The band took a trip to Chicago to have Steve Albini record a few demos for the band’s then upcoming album, In On The Kill Taker. One thing led to another and the plan to do a couple tracks expanded into a busy weekend capturing the record in its entirety at Electrical Audio. Fate would intervene though as both the band and Albini decided they were not the right recordings for the album and the session was forever scraped (and subsequently bootlegged over the years). Over three decades later and we’re all witnessing a minor miracle at that the Albini Sessions have arrived, an archival release of that legendary session that could be weighed on the richter scale. While it’s understandable why this record never came to be in this form, there’s some real magic hearing these timeless songs run through Albini’s unique engineering, pulling the low end over our heads like an atomic wedgee before offering a swift kick in the ass. The sound is predictably dense with a brute force “in the room” feel that sounds akin to Fugazi filtered through The Jesus Lizard. Raw and dirty but with all the makings of what would become their most revered album, it’s a triumphant piece of the world’s greatest puzzle. - DG
ISMATIC GURU
“Crocbrain, or, Two Big Steps For Mankind” EP
The wacky and weird world of Ismatic Guru has expanded once again with the release of the duo’s latest EP, Crocbrain, or, Two Big Steps For Mankind. Arriving last week via Swimming Faith Records (Besta Quadrada, Vipers, Havana Syndrome), the band keep their emphasis on contorted riffs, mangled rhythms, and absurdist lyrics that feel almost spontaneous in their subject matter (the devastation of stepping in dog shit, requests for a bit less salt, etc). The melodies come with a knotted fury, played at blistering tempos with a loose grip on reality as it spins ever faster away from us all. It’s ever apparent that John Toohill (Science Man, Alpha Hopper) and Bran Schlia (Bonzo, Helmsley) are having fun bashing out nimble punk that owes as much to new wave as it does warped visions of cartoons and acid-fried art rock. Songs like “If You Don’t Wanna Know” and “Pills” seem to exist in a post-sanity world, all has devolved, but we’re still here. - DG
MEMORIALS
“Dropped Down The Well”
MEMORIALS always to rise to the occasion. Whenever presented with a challenge, most of which are self-imposed, the duo of Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire, It Hugs Back) soar beyond limitations. All Clouds Bring Not Rain, the band’s second studio album, finds the pair experimenting with the capabilities of what vintage recording equipment can offer when you’re restricted from the endless digital realm of constant manipulation. Due out on March 27th via Fire Records (Tropical Fuck Storm, Jane Weaver, Monde UFO), their self-produced new album was recorded in large part in a barn in the remote woods of France, allowing Susman and Simms to explore the line between surging krautrock, lounge-tinged post-punk, kaleidoscopic folk, 60’s prog, and psych pop in a way that feels impossibly natural and inherently free. “Dropped Down The Well,” the record’s fourth single, is built on a ripping rhythm with gorgeously insistent bass and a spring-loaded drum beat, the song buzzing with propulsive energy and a wildly engaging sense of melody that has become synonymous with Susman’s songwriting. With the constant hum of synths and a scene stealing organ lead, the duo snake around the structure with a radiantly optimistic tonality for a song about being at the bottom of the well. - DG
NIGHT MOTH
“Night Moth” LP
While Boston’s Night Moth began life as the solo project of Squitch’s Emery Spooner, Squitch has since dissolved and Night Moth have triumphantly re-emerged as a quartet , bringing a new life to Spooner’s personal songs. With the release of their self-titled full length debut, the band sound fully formed on a record that has a lot of emotional depth and an unflinching intimacy without ever sounding too heavy handed. Spooner’s melodies rise and fall with a gentle ease, pulling us into somber reflections with a disconnected grace, nimble and free wheeling one moment and complex and tangled the next. Night Moth is wrapped in the profound struggle we’re all going through in our unsettling times, but the nuanced songwriting feels hopeful, or at least dynamic enough not to further any collective depression. With dissonant structures that pair together with sweet melodies and jagged riffs, Night Moth take an adventurous approach to texture even as their songs stay rooted in gentle folk and fuzzy DIY warmth. - DG
POSITRONIX
“Ascension Day”
Philadelphia’s Positronix pack so much punch on a song-to-song basis, their songs well coiled but brightly melodic. The more you listen, the better they get as they split the difference between riot grrrl infectiousness and classic dance-floor swarming post-punk. The quartet stand as one of underground punk scene’s best kept secrets, but to hear them is to become enamored in the energy and exuberance of their gnarled vibrance. Following their great Heart of Chrome LP in 2024 (a record that we all should have given far more flowers), the band return with a new EP, Miss Universe, due out April 3rd and the first single “Ascension Day” is a perfectly gluey earworm. Radiant and ripping, the song opens with a great bass lead before diving into an enormous groove and even bigger melodic bite (in which PYLON doesn’t feel far off as a comparison) with Amelia Pitcherella’s incredible vocals that heart of it all. It’s the type of song you don’t want to end and we can’t wait to hear more from this record. - DG
ROBBER ROBBER
“Pieces”
Robber Robber are so unbelievably good. “Pieces” - the final single off of their remarkable new album Two Wheels Move The Soul - is a caterwauling romp, loud and frisky and undeniably compelling. Searing guitars (courtesy of the multi-talented Zack James) build an unrelenting infrastructure on “Pieces,” and as the rest of the band weave in and out, Nina Cates’ vocals fly high above, ominously and drone-ish. Robber Robber are their most special in this mode, sounding Metric-like but pushed to the furthest extremes of what that could possibly mean. “Pieces” begins what is, in my estimation, one of the best five song runs of the past decade. This is technically the b-side, sure, but “Pieces,” “Talkback,” and the absolutely enormous “Enough” should propel Robber Robber to where they belong: in the conversation of the best bands currently releasing music. “I’ll send you with a piece of / I’ll send you with a piece of / I’ll send you with a piece of;” rarely has a paean been as profoundly felt. Two Wheel Move The Soul will be out April 3rd via Fire Talk Records. — NP
ROSCO P COLDCHAIN & NICHOLAS CRAVEN
“Benz Sprinter”
At the same time Lord Willin’ introduced the world to the Clipse and the production of The Neptunes, the record also served to introduce us to both Fam-Lay and Rosco P Coldchain, two of the era’s most gifted MCs whose destinies always felt hampered by record label politics and general bullshit. While they were both prominent fixtures in the Star Trak ranks, neither released an “official” LP under the banner, and things took a turn for the worse for Coldchain when he found himself incarcerated on homicide charges back in 2008. Fast forward sixteen years later to 2024 and the North Philadelphia MC known for his raw “mask and gloves” brand of rap is once again a free man. In the years since he’s released a couple fresh-out-the-joint records, but it would seem redemption is coming via Play With Something Safe, an album length collaboration with Nicholas Craven (Boldy James, Ransom, Tha God Fahim) on the beats. While the Canadian producer’s dusted loops and samples are a long way from The Neptunes’ kinetic sound (and sharp drums), “Benz Sprinter” proves it’s a great match for Coldchain’s loquacious delivery, his barbed solid steel lyrics, and his approach to stark realism. He hasn’t lost a step, the criminal element of his words as dangerous as it ever was. - DG
URQ
“Another Mystery”
Consider this the official “you might consider this biased, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t include it warning.” If that bugs you, don’t read it, just listen for yourself.
While best known as one half of Louisiana’s finest art punk duo, SPLLIT, Urq has been quietly amassing himself an impressive collection of oddball solo records for the better part of the past decade. Recording from a place of joyous experimentation and artistic curiosity, there’s a real carefree innocence to the music as it bounces from one bugged out alien landscape to the next with a reverence for the intricate and irreverent. Urq’s upcoming album This Dismal Village retains the project’s lo-fi charms, recorded in full to a 4-track Portastudio over an intensive month while thematically seeping into ambitious conceptual waters. The tale of the titular village and its inhabitants warps old school prog, modern art rock, 90’s tinged indie, and hazy screwball punk together with unpredictable results, each track building upon the brilliant narrative. “Another Mystery,” the record’s lead single, opens the story with scrambled egg punk dexterity, rattling our senses with cartoonish glee that pairs together with a mellow melodic core as it introduces our first look into the village and it’s ominous underbelly. - DG
Further Listening:
March 02 - March 08:
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS “Acid Rain” | ANKHLEJOHN & WHOA1.0 “Jumpin A Bunny” | BETH GIBBONS “Sunday Morning” | BULLSEYE “Kid” | CASHIER “The Weight” | CASS MCCOMBS & CHRIS COHEN “Steel Reserve” | CHONCY “Dressing the Part” | CRAIG WEDREN “Nothing Bad” | DAMAGED BUG “Over-Exposed” | EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FROZE TO DEATH “Second Empires” | ERIN RAE “Whip-Poor-Will” (Jason Molina cover) | FATBOI SHARIF & CHILD ACTOR “Chemo Crystal Ball” | FULL BODY 2 “Turn So Slow” | GOON “Atrium” | HIDING PLACES “One Hand” | HUS KINGPIN “Hang Glide Samurai” (feat. Raekwon & Kurupt) | IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS "Juntos Vencemos" (feat. Helado Negro) | JALEN NGONDA “Doctrine of Love” | KATIE ALICE GREER “Unglued” | LANE “Lane Says” | LOST BOY ? “Wallace” | OSEES “Cara Maluco” EP | PIPPY “Millionaire” | POISON RUIN “Hymn From The Hills” | RED RAKES “Whipping Star” | SCOUT GILLETT “Gonna Change” | SMERZ “Dreams (Live)” | SUITOR “Dull Customer” | SURFBORT “Hot Dog” | WEBB CHAPEL “Hail Mary” | WEIRD NIGHTMARE “Pay No Mind” | WINGED WHEEL “Helicopter Day” LP
MARCH 09 - MARCH 15:
ANNA ALTMAN “How Much” | BILLY FULLER “Three Blind Mice” | BODY SHOP “Fallacies” | CAVALIER & QUELLE CHRIS “Holding On” (feat. Navy Blue & Denmark Vessey) | DEAD FINKS “Spiral Staircase” | DOUGH NETWORKZ “Patterns” (feat. Boldy James & Jay Worthy) | EARL SWEATSHIRT, MIKE, & SURF GANG “Minty // Earth” | ELUCID & SEBB BASH “The Lorax” (feat. billy woods) | ELUVIUM “A.M.” | GOUGE AWAY “Figurine” | GUTTERSNIPE “Keep Honking! We're Trapped in a Memetic Bottleneck” | ICEAGE “Star” | JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD & DOLOUR “Pink Triangle” (Weezer cover) | KIM GORDON “Play Me” | LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE “Progreso” | MABE FRATTI & BILL ORCUTT “El inicio es cuestión de suerte” | MCLUSKY “As A Dad” | MORGAN NAGLER “Hurt” | MY WIFE’S AN ANGEL “Karaoke” | ORA COGAN “The Smoke” | PATOIS COUNSELORS “Cop City” + “Generational Riffs” | PEARL & THE OYSTERS “Wide Awake” | POPE “Make You Feel” | POWER SNATCH “Perfect Hand” (This Is Lorelei cover) | POWERPLANT “Running Cross” | RUNO PLUM “Butterflies” | SONNY FALLS “Angel In The Alley” | SPACE MOUNTAIN “Clean Hands” | SUNFORGER “Say Sorry” | T.F. & DJ MUGGS “Star Studded” | THURSTON MOORE & BONNER KRAMER “Insight” (Joy Division cover) | TOUCH GIRL APPLE BLOSSOM “Vacation” | WENDY EISENBERG “Vanity Paradox” | YOUBET “Receive”