Taken together, All People and Community Records are purposeful projects enacted in furtherance of building a cultural exchange where people can create, produce, and share music. All People’s third full length All People listens like the spiritual cornerstone of this vision, reminding people to step outside of themselves for periodic renewal.
Brooklyn micro label Minikin, have released their first compilation: Afterthoughts; a lovely 14-track record for which the proceeds go to Brooklyn music education platform We Make Noise. Minikin, formed in 2015, have brought together scene stalwarts Bethlehem Steel, Vagabon, Long Beard, gobbinjr, Half Waif, among others, and the result is a lovely, meandering set of songs that fit well together without being overly similar.
Weaves is a key figure on small but beloved Toronto-based label Buzz Records, and their unpredictably spasmodic yet undeniably pop-friendly songs have gathered them an intense worldwide fanbase, one that’s especially staggering for a band with only a couple of EPs and a string of sporadically released singles to their name.
Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf’s album The Party is a masterful work with a compelling narrative about youth and heartbreak. The Party is Shauf’s debut on Anti- Records, telling the tale of a party and the small secrets revealed and social mishaps occurring in a single evening. The songs have a cinematic, quiet beauty to them, with layers of keys, trumpet, guitar and softly pounding drums.
Buck Gooter’s heart and soul resides in the comparatively stoic sixty-four year old guitarist/singer Terry Turtle. The sight of Terry onstage shredding and belting like he never passed twenty is guaranteed to linger in concert-goers heads long after Buck Gooter leaves the stage. After more than ten years of playing together Billy decided to team up with Harrisonburg based videographer Joey Bell to create The Man Named Turtle as a way of unwrapping and contextualizing the history of such a unique musician.
Few things sound as good as MOURN when they’re at their best, juxtaposing primarily minor chord progressions with a sturdy foundation courtesy of a rhythm section that takes turns providing the spine of their songs. They are relentless in their willingness to make music that takes itself seriously, but only to a point.
Year of the Rabbit has a slightly darker tone than it's predecessor, O.K. Melodically, YOTR feels like a classic Eskimeaux album. It chronologically fits into Smith's discography like a glove. Lyrically, Smith matures with each release. In a short amount of time, the album hits on themes of personal growth, insecurity, fear, love, and lust.
Daydreams in a Roach Motel is a deeply weird release, one that pushes past a stale game of “spot the reference” to paint a larger regional portrait of gender identity and spiritual renewal, of life and death, horizon and transience in the thick flow of the James. Cat Be Damned’s hazy lo-fi feels like a fitting artifact of too many landscapes to count, compounded over soft synths and hushed vocals that teeter towards collapse.
Car Seat Headrest songs are about the big, scary questions that we’re all asking ourselves. Although Toledo doesn’t claim to have the answers, you still end up feeling empowered as a listener. The record captures the all too familiar sense of emptiness and uncertainty that comes with the start of adulthood, and it will fiercely resonate with young people who are trying to figure out how to live in a world that feels like it's falling apart more everyday.
