With the Glasgow, Scotland collective Nightshift, it seems we can actually talk about both intellectual lyrics and music. The band only started in 2019, comprising four musicians already playing elsewhere - Eothen Stearn, Chris White, Andrew Doig, and Georgia Harris. We encounter that intellectual tag right from the start.
Ten tracks of tangled, anxious but melodic punk, Material is the latest from Smirk, the solo project of Los Angeles guitarist Nick Vicario (Public Eye, Crisis Man). The followup to two 2021 releases, the album typifies the punchy, lo-fi aesthetic of the Feel It roster, while embracing both ‘70s-flavored rock guitar jams and jittery new wave of the ‘80s.
Melbourne’s Delivery evolve their sound and vibe with debut album Forever Giving Handshakes. Channeling wiry post-punk as much as psyched-out garage and hooky power-pop, Handshakes rides a wavering line between tightly-wound momentum and raucous partying, the result a collection of nervy, shout-along earworms.
Hearing new Tony Molina albums, such as his latest, In the Fade, brings me back to being a teenager, fully immersed in Weezer's Blue Album, the Beatles, and pumped to hear and learn more, setting off exploratory paths to underground bands. His music is a modern day starting point of “the good shit”.
On their fourth record, they continue to do things nobody else's way but their own, continuing to refine their unique style of oddball shoegaze with an uncompromising vision of noisiness and weirdness. Through its all too brief runtime, Lucky Styles ranges from the crushingly loud to the stunningly serene, never settling on the easy choice.
Music should be impactful, wide and universally relatable. For almost twenty years, The Black Angels have done this through six long players and four extended plays. Five years since the profound Death Song, the Austin legends blast back onto Mother Earth with fierce textures driven by drummer Stephanie Bailey, who has never sounded larger.
Nashville’s Snooper gives us everything we could ever want from an egg punk EP: ripping-hot riffs, shrieking guitar, pummelling drums, half-sung vocals about modern malaise. Their latest five track EP, Town Topic, clocking in at less than eight minutes, sounds like a Devo record mistakenly played at 45 RPM, but this is no trite rehash.
We'll Become the Flowers is New York based Eliza Edens’ second album of indie folk songs. The record is full of aching sadness contrasted with a whimsical hopefulness and acknowledgement of beauty all around, if we're open to seeing it. Eden's vocals have a way of cutting to your deepest feelings with their husky intonation and warmth.
The anger that persists on Malign Hex is never so cliched to be grounded by the confines of its creators; it's tapping into the ether to explode unseen parts of reality and give listeners the spark to indulge these nameless feelings of fear, disgust, outrage, etc. To support this larger effort, the band emphasize their cohesion as a unit.
Incredibly idiosyncratic - albeit not to one another, the Atlanta-based quartet Mamalarky communicates amongst themselves in a tongue all their own. Their most recent release, Pocket Fantasy, is not an invitation into their world, but an overheard discussion felt so intensely that it is carried home by casual passerby.
It turns out that a slowed-down, remote, process gave Mushfoot ample time to think these songs thoroughly through, giving them the recording touches these detailed, layered songs require. They pick up on strands laid before them by the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Broadcast, Deerhoof, Stephen Merritt, and more.
In keeping with the promise of their 12”, Blush is an exciting addition within that catalog. An album length statement that stands rather asynchronous from the momentum of this New British Alternative moment; more akin to a dark horse alternative nudging towards the dancefloor catharsis of hundreds or even just one.
Enter Hit With The Most, the band’s latest. Intended as a love letter to its obvious early ‘80s pop influences, the album is mostly distorted guitars over mid-tempo slacker rock. Ribbon Stage is big on subtlety, vocals back in the mix and nary a cymbal on the record – the result is an almost unwavering focus on simplicity and melody.
