Their new album Goodbye, Blue Sky is an acid soaked voyage to the distant cosmos. It is sonically ambitious and rewarding. They’ve moved far beyond the garage pop sensibilities of Nico...and her Psychedelic Subconscious into a universe of dark atmospheric swells, lush vocals, and larger than life synth and organ arrangements.
Their website header reads “The ONO Statement of Purpose: Experimental, Noise, and Industrial Poetry Performance Band Exploring Gospel's Darkest Conflicts, Tragedies and Premises.” Forty years into their existence, their motive remains incredibly potent; ONO’s artistic mission is as important as ever on Red Summer.
Varsity’s sound has been revised with each release since they formed in 2013. What has remained static, though, is the persevering spirit at their core. Even when broaching darker topics, there is an optimism present that is absent from their peers. Their new album Fine Forever takes that resilience and embraces it at every juncture.
Judy Hong who runs Quiet Year Records and organizes with Ice Cream Social in Richmond, VA, along with Nancy Grim Kells (Spartan Jet-Plex) and James Cassar, are part of the team responsible for Grim Year Wednesdays, an inventive online hybrid of interviews and performances with a focus on fundraising for the Virginia Anti-Violence Project.
Overall, their new EP serves as an excellent addition to the small but growing Lance Bangs discography. Prior fans of the band will be pleased with WHAMMY’s adherence to and progression of the singular style put on display with Lance Mountain. For new fans, it is the perfect place to dive in for the first time, all in just over eleven minutes.
On Shadow Talk, Cafe Racer leap into a new era. On their 2018 debut Famous Dust, the Chicago natives proved themselves capable and well-versed proponents of psych and space rock. On their new record, they have pushed their penchant for the psychedelic forward into tighter playing, vast structures, and blossoming arrangements.
In Bandcamp’s ongoing quest to better the world, they are once again waiving their cut of all sales on Friday, June 5th (PST). There are literally hundreds of thousands of records that deserve your attention on Bandcamp. We are highlighting some of our favorite black artists on Bandcamp, though it’s just a drop in the ocean.
The prolific Car Seat Headrest have returned but not in the guise one would have envisioned. Once again backed by Matador Records, the indie icon has now taken his studious approach to electronica on the band’s 12th album. For this isn’t solely a Car Seat Headrest record, rather it’s a collaboration with the bizarre 1TraitDanger.
Chicago quartet Bruges are set to follow up last year’s An Erasure of Form with a new album, A Thread of Light, due out Friday, June 5th. Their sound is a dark mix of noise rock and primal minimalist repetition, comprised of droning low-end and plenty of tension. The heaviness of their sound relies as much on atmosphere and dynamic as it does physical heft and volume.
Having released their debut EP at the start of 2019, the duo are ready to share their full length debut, Service Provider, on August 25th via their recently formed label. The band are sticking with their charitable deeds, donating 20% of all proceeds to The Trussell Trust, plus an extra 10% on Bandcamp’s upcoming fee waiver days.
As a song that expounds on loneliness and isolation, the current global state of affairs injects new meaning into the deeply personal “Bad Words.” Though written before the current pandemic, in the video, the band applies the song’s themes to the new collective normal that many are experiencing with a hopeful and inspiring message.
Blessed Fruit is easily the most violent and deranged the band have ever sounded. The entire record is sonically threatening to bury you under a mountain of high frequency feedback and piercing levels of gain. Coincidentally, it’s also the first to be professionally mastered, with Will Killingsworth of Dead Air Studios to thank for this one.
Chicago four-piece Stuck is a torrent of biting guitar riffs and desperate vocals twisted and held together by a precise, curious rhythm section. Their stripped-down and raw approach is evident and effective on their debut album, Change is Bad. We had the pleasure of meeting and talking with them via video chat.
Formerly a collaborator of Guerilla Toss and Wei Zhongle, the Minnesota via Eau Claire based songwriter’s solo music is based within folk, but the inherent ease in his songs is built on a wandering state of reinvention. Following last year’s Oakland Ave, Keen returns with new full length, Cells Remain, out August 21st on Birdwatcher Records.
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