Power-driven and reckless at its core, Upchuck’s newest album Bite The Hand That Feeds demands listener attention. The Atlanta based post-punk group bring listeners through a fluid and twisted but expressive journey. With production from Ty Segall, distortion and garage-rock attentively weave their way into Upchuck’s unique sound.
Great Grandpa made a splash with the phenomenal Four of Arrows in 2019. Since then, they’ve been working on a wide assortment of personal projects. Among them is Freak Accident, the latest release from Al Menne, the bands’ lead singer - a record that finds him hitting his most intimate, personal, and soft spoken songwriting moments yet.
Toronto’s PACKS return with Melt the Honey, their third full length and their second within a span of a year, continuing to cover new ground as they go. Fronted by Madeline Link, their sound plays from a controlled burn of garage rock, anti-folk and the barebones of pop-eccentricism, redefining the mundane with gasps of fixation and sincerity.
Evoking Marvin Gaye, Ngonda’s falsetto and beautiful orchestration is a modern interpretation of the classic soul music many of us grew up on. It’s hard not to immediately feel a sense of nostalgia for Motown oldies and soul when listening to the tight instrumentation and themes of unrequited love, heartbreak, and becoming a better person.
Safe To Run captured Esther Rose’s potential, both as a songwriter and performer. Maybe it was just a natural progression, but she seems to have reached her full musical maturity. It’s expressed in the fact that when she writes her songs she’s able to envision them in a number of versions, with almost each one being the right one.
After upgrading from Version 1 to Version 2, the band started producing luscious, gossamer shoegaze tracks that draw on digital soundscapes. Along with a drum and bass track at the end of each, this is what made up their first two demos. Now with their latest, infinity signature, the band continue this sound, further developing a new world.
Olympia’s Physique have returned with Overcome By Pain, a blistering six track EP on Seattle’s Iron Lung Records, giving a form to the noise of the body – the body reacting to the deep silence keeping this rotten imperialist foundation in place. Fresh off February’s Again, Physique continue their d-beat bombardment.
As echoed keys welcome melting synths, crushing drum loops knotted around a lustful, intimate voice awaken. That is how a.s.o. opens – the collaborative effort of eclectic house producer Lewie Day (Tornado Wallace) and singer Alia Seror-O’Neill (Alias Error) – and it is the modern reinvigoration of sleek ‘90s downtempo.
New York duo Frog returns with a rowdy cast of characters on a beaming LP, and a new lineup in Daniel Bateman’s brother, Steve. On the introductory track of GROG, a cheery voice explains that grog is the drink of choice for sailors in the 18th century, and the album certainly does have a flushed, rosy feeling to it.
Legendary multi-instrumentalist and improviser Keiji Haino, along with Guro Moe, a Norwegian bassist and avant-garde composer share Drums & Octobass, released on Norway’s ConradSound label, a new collaborative effort. Haino, now 71, is showing no signs of slowing down, raising eyebrows with his adventurous improvisations.
Darling aka Charlotte Kouklia is a member of Rose Mercie, and has already released two solo singles, various CD-R releases, and one widely distributed full-length of her own. It took her a few years or so to share another solo effort, but judging by the nine tracks (and a voice recording) on La Porte, it was quite worth the wait.
St. Louis indie-rockers, Shady Bug use their latest EP to interpret preservation through a lens of both inner and outer anxieties. What’s the Use?, packaged within twenty minutes of bleeding hooks and dissonant indie-rock, lets Shady Bug unwrap a beautiful juxtaposition of self worth while our world comes to an end.
The Chicago quartet play hardcore at the speed of light, their fury only matched by their willingness to distort their assault with subtle psychedelic shifts. Harsh Reality, released via Three One G Records is aware of police brutality, corporate greed, and ever present inequality, and Stress Positions are none too happy about any of it.
Sundae Painters, the last recordings of Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), brings four pivotal artists together. Kilgour, Alec Bathgate (Tall Dwarfs), Paul Kean (Toy Love, The Bats) and Kaye Woodward (The Bats) have a long history with each other and these recordings come from informal jam sessions that give space for psychedelic and folk exploration.
Wishy is a force of Midwestern exceptionalism; a blanket of whirling guitar music and a breeze of soothing pop melodies all brought to life by leaders Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites. With their new label home, Winspear, and help from friend and producer, Ben Lumsdaine (Durand Jones), Wishy has released their debut EP, Paradise.
Cruel throws another hat into the busy, increasingly-young Chicago ring, with a mosh-able, riff-heavy debut EP on Fire Talk’s new tape imprint Angel Tapes. To-the-point at only four songs over eleven minutes, Common Rituals flexes a driving rhythm section, loud two-guitar attack, and blown-out yelled vocals.
