St. Louis’ Frankie Valet released their latest album, Waterfowl, a gorgeous record that combines heart warming folk and indie pop with shoegaze, slowcore, and emo tendencies. Out now on It Takes Time Records, the album finds the voice of each member contributing in equal measure, creating the idea of something personal and collective.
On a list of great ideas, a charity compilation to benefit RAICES comprised entirely of Neil Young covers, is up toward the top. Compiled by Yeehaw Junction’s Shayla Riggs, the compilation, Look Out For My Love: A Neil Young Covers Album is built on their idea that “at the core of Neil Young's catalog is the belief that art has the power to transform the world around us.”
Pop melodies, grunge tones, folk fingerpicking, and post-punk song structures are patched beautifully and darkly into a cohesive record on Treadles’ And the Rocks…. Each track unpredictably runs the gamut of sound, tone, and emotion, never staying in the same place for long, making the album a unique and rewarding listen.
Good Big is a debut record laden with meticulous riffs, built on rhythm and supplemented by a constant drive. The label describe it as “top-notch egg punk,” with nods to Minutemen and Suburban Lawns. It stops, starts, and speeds up. With a fade out, you’re able to catch your breath before being catapulted into the next track.
Having released their debut EP and a stand-alone single in 2018 and 2019 respectively, the band are set to share the full length debut, Change Is Bad, on April 3rd via Born Yesterday Records. The band swerve between slurred aggression, blaring attacks, and tightly coiled post-punk; unhinged one moment and snapping into place the next.
It'll scratch your itch for punk and power-pop from top to bottom, but when Personality Cult push outside genre boundaries on their second album, New Arrows, the results turn electric. Packed with driving beats, there's not a slow moment until the finale, and with nary a song longer than two minutes and thirty seconds.
En Attendant Ana's Juillet is another absolute gem of an album released by the mighty Trouble in Mind. This is the second full length from this fantastic fuzz pop band from Paris. It is an album of triumphant swells, hooks, and horns marked with lyrics urging one to figure out that thing you are trying to figure out and move forward.
Following up 2017’s Melt To You EP, Sleepies returns with a new full length, their first in four years. Time v Pleasure, due out February 28th, is an eclectic offering, bringing you both the Sleepies you know and love, and much like it’s predecessor, pushing their sound to unknown territories, experimenting along the way.
if indie rock albums could be measured by how effectively it evokes of the teenager experience, I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone would be nothing if not a triumph. The sophomore effort from the Asheville, NC quintet is a dark, deep work that captures the emotional messiness and simmering irascibility of adolescence with a searing accuracy.
The Bay Area’s Sour Widows have been trickling out singles since last August but the wait for their upcoming self-titled EP is nearly over. Due out on February 28th, the young band show a great deal of promise as they mix bedroom pop, post-hardcore, and a penchant for big melodies and wayward structures.
Indy500 part 1, the first (obviously) of the four releases planned for 2020, is preceded by single “Trackstar,” a driving track filled with subtle electronics that accentuate The Human Fly’s already eclectic sound. Mathis’ pop vocal chops are in full swing here, but there are also plenty of instrumental sections.
Hudkins and Segedy have again combined their forces to craft the sequel to Dreamboats, to which they’ve given the appropriate name of Dreamboats 2. Right off the first few chugging bass notes and vocal oohs in “Absolutely,” Dreamboats 2 announces itself as a celebration of friendship, of collaborative artistry, and of honing a craft.
Mary Vision make that shimmery, humid, taking-a-break-from-roofing-inside-the-barn kind of psych. It's slow burning and crunchy as it mixes it's blues rock tones with the drawn out proselytizing of the psych jams of yore. The vocals are always a little behind in the mix, with the three guitars really putting in work to keep things sonically wacky.
Old Table can sometimes be reminiscent of the music of Daniel Johnston or Guided by Voices in that the pop brilliance seems completely uncalculated- Will’s craft could better be described as song-channeling than songwriting. Where Old Table differs from the aforementioned acts, though, is the lyrical content.
His music tends to take a more somber and subdued look into introspection, searching for meaning from his childhood and all that has resulted since. Set to release his latest album, Youth Pastoral, on February 28th via Whatever’s Clever, the album is a reflection on growing up a Christian teenager and the rebellion that emerged.
