It’s been five years since Brooklyn via Japan’s Hard Nips released the Bunny EP, but the long wait is over as they’ve announced their next full length, Master Cat. Due out June 4th via Rochester’s Dadstache Records, the quartet’s last is inspired by 80’s post-punk and alternative rock (think Blondie, B-52’s), driven through a garage pop lens.
Wombo are one of the more exciting new bands we’ve come across this year. While they released their fantastic full length debut last year, we hadn’t caught wind of the record until Fire Talk announced the reissue back in March. With a renewed lease on their LP, the band announced it’s follow-up EP, Keesh Mountain.
Swollen, the project of Shady Bug’s Tom Krenning, is disarming and sinister, like a bad trip ringing inside your head in the quiet of the night. Their album, Smothered, due out June 25th via Super Wimpy Punch, is a captivating listen that encapsulates its own world, one where the aesthetic choice is disorienting and minimal.
While the band claims to have always focused on the idea of “evil” and the perversity of playing hopeless songs as gently as possible, album title Evil Joy specifically refers to the pain and pleasure in a deteriorating relationship. Lead single “Where The Good Ones Go” fits right in with most of these ideas.
With the detached noise of Carnivorous Plants and the upcoming Health Plan (mems of USA Nails) albums leading 2021 for the label, Nim_Brut are ready to introduce themselves further via Deprived of Occupation and Pleasure We Feast, a compilation of the label’s artists featuring entirely unreleased material.
Kibby are getting ready to release their second full length of the stay-at-home era. The band’s sophomore album, Blabracadabra, is due out May 14th via Forged Artifacts (Half Stack, Dweller, Alexei Shishkin), and aside from a great title, the album delivers a great deal of silky psych-pop, both cosmic and full of home-brewed soul.
Mesh are an awesome new post-punk band from Philadelphia. Having released a three song demo back in 2019, the band’s official self-titled debut EP is due out May 21st via Born Yesterday Records. The record is tightly wound, with hard and jittery rhythmic coils and guitars that peel away at the foundation.
Chicago’s experimental pop polymaths Nature’s Neighbor are set to return with another full length, the eclectic and worldly, O t h e r s i d e. Due out May 14th, the album truly has no boundaries, rippling from synthetic laptop-pop to progressive folk and warped R&B with everything else in between touched upon for good measure.
For Hennen (aka Shady Bug’s Hannah Rainey) and Algae Dust (aka Frankie valet’s Alison Setili), their music works wonders alone, but it may be even better together, the home recorded pairing highlighting each other’s differences but making a point of what ties them together, good songwriting and a wistful nature.
Chicago post-hardcore stalwarts Great Deceivers return once more with a new self-titled album, due out April 30th via Landland Colportage. While the members stay busy between bands like C.H.E.W., Options, and various solo projects, they’ve remained committed to their work in Great Deceivers for over a decade.
Their new video for “Xuxa,” directed by Jamie Jones and Connor Surdi, is the latest installment in their already charming visual saga. Cinematically encapsulating all the characteristics of the band’s music, the video features Flying Fish Cove amongst all the elements and ephemera you’d imagine the creators of this music to be into.
Zach Phillips is back with another release on his new La Loi Records, the debut of a new project, Perfect Angels. Joined by Olia Eichenbaum on vocals and a slew of frequent collaborators, the band’s own brand of dreamy avant-garde lounge pop is equally enchanting and spaced-out throughout Exit From The Ultra-World.
The quartet are set to return with the fourth full length, True Deceiver, due out April 23rd, their heaviest and noisiest effort to date. The band, led by Travis Trevisan (guitar/vocals) have always played around with and subverted the shoegaze formula, shifting the sound in all directions, here that direction becomes increasingly dense.
The syrupy sludge of Sweet Williams is instantly identifiable and yet nearly undefinable. It’s slow, tense, heavy, and often abrasive, creating something with the dexterity of post-hardcore, the patient beauty of slowcore, and the raw tonality of noise rock, and yet all those genre tags feel somewhat off.
In case their band name didn’t tip you off, one could describe Birthday Ass as a “colorful band” at every step of the way. From their lyrics to their compositions and every abrasion that comes as a result, the Brooklyn based band create a fun and freaky mix of jazz, prog, punk, and pop, skewering everything into it’s own chaotic charm.
Jen Bender is the vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for Rochester, NY’s Cusp, a new band that features members of Full Body 2 and Rut. Set to release their debut EP, Spill, via Dadstache Records on 5/7, it’s a great collection of worn in and fuzzed out DIY rippers, built with emotion, wandering structures, and plenty of good old guitar harmonies.
Ainsley Wagoner's upbringing by her church musician parents becomes readily apparent on Silverware's new single "Take Me With You” thanks to the unmistakable sound of the Hammond organ that permeates the track. The post-breakup anthem showcases the multi-instrumentalist's singular voice and penchant for raw lyricism.
Much like their first two albums, Paper Mice’s latest once again pulls their stories from newspaper headlines, and thankfully they picked some of the lighter and more hilarious articles. Lead single “The Cynic Route” happens to be about a group of Russian men who decided to illegally cross over a bridge disguised as a yellow school bus.
Set for release on April 2nd via Feel It Records, there’s little time to waste however and Spread Joy are sharing a new video for two of the album’s many highlights, “St. Tropez” and “Semantics.” That idea of no time to waste is one they take to heart with the ten song debut clocking in at fourteen minutes. It’s all pulp, no juice… or all juice, no pulp, whichever.
