Mach-Hommy released his first new record of the year in the form of Notorious Dump Legends: Volume 2, a collaborative album together with Tha God Fahim. They are a great duo, whose voices fit together with aural perfection, melodic, focused, slick, raw, with their stream-of-conscious rhymes capturing a spark in each other.
Philadelphia’s Grocer have resisted the unconscious urge toward homogeneity that afflicts so many weird, unique bands. Quite the opposite – with each release they become even more themselves. On Scatter Plot, the trio lets their freak flag fly, experimenting with song structures, curious chords, and sonic textures.
New Hampshire feels particularly positioned as the sort of place that’ll seep into its inhabitants' expression. It’s beautiful, strange, flawed, and quiet - the perfect place to spend too much time inside your head. On Not Close For Comfort, the debut EP from Dover based singer-songwriter Jordan Holtz (Rick Rude), this sort of mood is abundant.
II (out on FatCat Records) is pure fuel. Pure Adult’s brand of imperfect-yet-pitch-perfect ‘noisymusik’ is nothing short of a tonic in days that feel ever-more apocalyptic, a propulsive journey that rewards a keener ear. The first listen gives you broad strokes and satisfying noise rock, but second and third listens reveal secrets, layers, wheels.
Steel Country, Swim Camp’s fourth album, is easily the Philly-based project’s most sonically confident album yet. Actualized by Tom Morris in 2015 as an outlet to learn guitar, Swim Camp is now two years shy of a decade old this year, and one will find it difficult to listen without feeling a little proud of how far the project has come.
Oozing Wound are a heavy band born from the fertile stomping grounds of Chicago’s DIY scene and have a penchant for delivering albums chalk-full of songs too heavy to have made In Utero. We Cater to Cowards is something of a departure from previous releases, albeit not one as drastic as some of the discourse has made it out to be.
On the non-album live favorite “Engine,” Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum rolls through “endless revisions to state what I mean.” This line is probably the best summation of the full-discography box set that Merge Records has released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their breakthrough record, 1998’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.
It’d be very hard to build a case against this excellent record—out now on the increasingly indispensable Feel It Records—as anything but an exemplar in its field, an inspired melding of brooding post-punk, expansive kosmische and jangly psychedelia bound to leave a legion of decent-to-good imitations in its wake.
As their sixth studio release, Pollen sees star-crossed lovers Alaina Moore and Pat Riley of Tennis fighting the powers that be. Caught in a violent collision of fate and free will, the darling indie duo prevails triumphant but not unscathed. Pollen is a pearl; a natural wonder that is worthy of reverie and intrusion of thought.
The Tubs trade the thumping punk undertones of their former band (Joanna Gruesome) for shimmery jangle, an ode to the energetic melody of late 80s college rock. With layers of hooks and harmony swirling around dark and introspective lyrical themes, Dead Meat reveals itself slowly, a dense work of complex, vibrant pop.
Listening to All Fiction front to back, we are treated to an album of songs that tend to deviate from the typical rock band format. The energy of the album ebbs and flows, increasing the impact of the more energy-intense tracks. The guitar is not used as the centerpiece of songs, but its intensity is made all the more real when it does appear.
As we’ve said, Patter represents a "brilliant hodgepodge of indie rock, mathy pop, and slacker charm,“ which makes sense, given that they’re made up of members of three equally inventive Chi-Town outfits, Options, The Deals, and The Knees. We get a truly dazzling lil’ sampler platter across this spitfire of an EP.
Divorce Cop has mastered itself: the band has managed to repackage noise, over and over again, to deliver an authentic expression of a style they can call theirs. Yup, their 2022 record, at last puts various experimental tracks in some order; it cements a complex emotion coined for the group some years ago as "frightful-delightful fun."
The new Amber Arcades album, Barefoot on Diamond Road, retires prior folky elements and runs with a denser, darker, and more cinematic color palette—akin to the expansive, orchestrated pop of Frankie Rose and Melody’s Echo Chamber. The sonics and lyrics vacillate between giddy excitement and apprehension.
What makes Yo La Tengo tick so well, with their latest album, This Stupid World, being no exception in that respect? It could be the personal synergy between the members. It could be the fact that they all possess an almost encyclopedic knowledge of every form of modern music there is, being able to reproduce it in any shape or form.
Guitar-based Americana music has its newest addition in the form of Philadelphia band Labrador’s latest release, Hold the Door for Strangers. The record, the band’s second, provides a unique take on alt-country, as it sees Labrador playing with more grit and dust than contemporaries like the War on Drugs and Kurt Vile.
Minneapolis-based rockers Scrunchies pull no punches on their sophomore album Feral Coast. The band, made up of Laura Larson (Kitten Forever), Danielle Cusack (Bruise Violet), and Matt Castore (Condominium), continue to build on their post-punk meets riot grrrl meets grunge sound, while also making space to explore new territory.
You’re likely familiar with the saying that hardcore music will “rot your brain.” While many have fought tirelessly to debunk this belief, Atlanta’s Nag have released a third album that treats this warning like an enticing challenge to produce proof. Human Coward Coyote ensures that listeners recognize they never settle for less than complete ruination.
Sweet Guitar Solos is far from just a stopgap project, and “Cowgirl in a Ditch” is just the first in a handful of worthwhile tracks. The four-song EP is raw and rough alt-country bliss coupled with moments of polished clarity and, as promised, you’ll find some crunchy guitar solos throughout that are, in fact, pretty fucking sweet.
