Pacific Notion, released back in 2017, found Seth Engel reinventing a selection of Options’ songs with a synthetic and electronic beauty, void of his usual rock band formation. Two years later, he’s at it again with Pacific Notion II, a project that finds Engel diving headfirst into the digital world with blissful results.
For Brooklyn’s Franklin Ligh, better known musically as Karaoke Mood Killer, he’s not into Stranger Things and he’d like you to stop trying to change his mind. Set to release (the fittingly titled) Demos on November 8th via Spirit Lust (Should’ve), the eight songs were captured in his Bushwick basement studio on a Tascam digital 8 track.
“You Fall Away” combines two of Henry’s songwriting instincts, the melody-forward songwriting of Bob Pollard/Guided by Voices and the effortless grace of Big Star, into a pitch-perfect rock ballad. Tthe guitars and vocals capture the restless youth of mid-90s, crackling with a coiled energy that erupts in a final-minute solo.
Full Body have never heard of the sophomore slump as evident on their album, Always There. The twisting and turning post-hardcore band have sharpened the edges of their attack, the vicious parts are more vicious and their emo pop influences as sticky sweet as they come. It’s the contusion of them that they’ve been welding together.
Post-Grunge Revival, the trio’s first release since 2017’s Die Alone Pt. 2, is a big step forward sonically, an enormous and primal EP full of buzzing riffs and left-field shifts. Chelsea Ursin's songs come to life with an added heaviness, digging into monstrous riffs with a quirky charm on songs about cow’s giving birth, graceful weirdness, and beyond.
The duo of Greg Jaime (O’Death) and Joey Weiss have been making stunning folk-inspired music for near a decade, creating natural landscapes and lush acoustics with gentle resolve. “Half Crazy” is a gorgeous finger picked and meditative song, brightened with magnificent harmonies and sweeping strings over otherwise dimly lit gothic folk progressions.
There’s little in this world that can prepare you for Thank, one of the UK’s great saviors of noise rock in its most deranged and brilliant form. While there are those that would turn the genre into radio-friendly butt rock, the Leeds based quintet keep it dangerous and fractured, experimenting with genre by adding in earth shaking electronics.
With companion albums released in 2018, Washington DC’s Luna Honey continue to ride a creative spark on an upcoming split together with Minneapolis’ own Wax Lead. Due out this Friday, October 11th via BLIGHT. Records, the quartet offer “Psalm,” a dark and minimal song that crawls under your skin burrowing in for the long haul.
Phoenix by-way-of Tempe, Arizona’s Twin Ponies have returned with their sophomore full length, Body On Credit. Due out Friday, October 11th, the band continue to flex their knack for knotted post-hardcore and sleepy slacker-pop charm, creating something that feels warm and familiar, but unpredictable and slightly on-edge.
Curse Word, a new band comprised of Matt Powell (Bulletin, Trespasser, a stint in Grass Is Green), Darl Ferm (Speedy Ortiz), and Jake Waldman, are a scrappy trio that have warped and bent the sound of bands like Polvo, Jawbox, and Faraquet adapting it into their own, opting for accessibility in the face of complex progressions.
Melbourne’s Program are set to release Show Me on October 18th via Anti Fade Records, an album that has been several years coming for a pair of musicians that have been grinding away since their earliest days. Recorded and mixed by Anti Fade’s own Billy Gardner, they find a sweet spot between 90’s “college rock” and motorik post-punk.
Mayer & Mayer is the new brother and sister duo of Atlanta’s Mick Mayer (of Red Sea) and Elle Mayer. While Elle contributor guest vocals to the last Red Sea record, the pair have decided to start their own project with their debut album set to arrive sometime in November, a record dedicated to their families Golden Retriever, Tulsi.
With a new video for “Hydraulic Saint," directed by Larry Bovick, the band breath new life into the record, a stirring reminder of the band’s deranged charm and caterwauling minimalism. For all the insanity and experimental nature of their sound, the construction remains fairly simple, an elastic riff that rings hard as warped rhythms.
Freezing Cold’s debut album, Glimmer, sounds like a lot of things: muscular art-rock, power-house emo, refined post-punk, and even mid-90’s alternative rock. One thing the album doesn’t sound like, however, is a debut. Glimmer comes to us confident & perfectly realized; the trio’s chemistry could not be more complementary.
