Due out digitally on June 28th, with the tape release to follow, each band are offering a pair of noisy tracks, displaying a disparity in their otherwise similar approaches, one dense and overdriven, the other nuanced and prolonged. It’s a great balance between their sounds, complimenting each other as they in turn highlight each other’s differences.
New York City-based Jeanines are a duo comprised of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith who, together, make music that is equal parts wistfully nostalgic and strikingly present. Their self-titled, debut album for Slumberland - which follows the release of a few demo tracks, a standalone single and two covers - is a collection of razor sharp, 60s influenced indie pop.
RONG are your mutant freak punk dreams come true. The Boston band have been kicking around for a year or so now, having released a fantastic split with Landowner last summer, and now the band are ready to unleash (and i do mean “unleash”) their triumphantly rampant full length debut, Wormhat, on July 2nd.
Toronto psych punks Possum are set to release their full length debut, Space Grade Assembly, in just a few weeks (June 21st via Garment District), a record that is both swirling with garage rock excess and cosmic basement fuzz. It shreds and shreds, brain cells be damned, bringing to mind early albums from Wand or Meatbodies.
Hailing from Boston, Little Musket started out as the songwriting vehicle for Catherine Conley but has expanded into a full-fledged four piece. You can expect a big sound with a direct, personal point-of-view. Little Musket’s upcoming debut record, Fever Blister, is being released by Dadstache Records (Calicoco, Fuzzrod).
The song’s slow and ominous introduction is paired perfectly with the video’s lighting, backing out into frame without any sense of urgency. The clip is fantastically off-centered which works together with the song, a dirge of psych tension that opens to primal drums and eventually the surfy bliss of Grace Wayne’s vocals and guitar.
In the midst of the melee of their opening number, “Ouch !,” Pinch Points announce, "Pinch Points are here." Maybe it's the Australian accent, or maybe their tone of voice, but you can't help but feel they're giving you the finger when they say it. That finger does not drop throughout all nine of the songs on their new album, Moving Parts, out on Roolette Records.
Jangly guitars, sharp hi-hats, and the sonic equivalent of that “Oh god, I shouldn’t have had that third cup of coffee” feeling come together flawlessly on Choral Reef’s debut EP. Appropriately titled gotta get to work, the tape energetically confronts the painful reality of what it means to be an artist in a world where your worth is often defined by what you do to make money.
In this video, Esterhammer-Fic’s powers of arrangement are on full display, as is his vulnerability as an untested artist that is stepping out as a songwriter, in many ways, for the first time. What better way to do that than by showcasing an orchestral reinterpretation of the Grammy Award Winning Certified R&B Banger “Boo’d Up” by Ella Mai.
While the record has a great sense of cohesiveness overall, a massive amount of collaboration took place at every stage of the record. Gary Canino is the mastermind behind Dark Tea, but twenty two people worked on the album in total. Among them, eight people had a hand in recording, mixing, producing, and mastering Dark Tea.
