When Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea arrived in 2000, it did so as the nexus of any number of narratives that had been building to that point. For all of the believers, it was Harvey’s first really “mature” album, the apex of her ability as a songwriter, wherein all the shadow and sex of her music finally erupted into defiant Y2K apocalypticism.
Boston quartet Moron is led by Brendan Delohery (vocals) with the band is rounded out by Ovlov’s Theo Hartlett (guitar), Ronald Baron Smooth Jazz (bass), and PHONY’s Neil Berthier (drums). With the release of the Allston Live Demmies, the band play a pointed brand of punk and post-punk, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek lyrical jabs.
The Green Child began as a long-distance collaboration between band members Raven Mahon (ex-Grass Widow) and Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring). Shimmering Basset finds the duo now united in Rye, Australia. The results of their newfound proximity are some of their strongest and most distinctive work yet.
Nick Vicario has released great punk records, both noisy hardcore (Crisis Man) and post-punk (Public Eye). He’s also released a string of EPs from his solo project, Smirk. Having released a pair of cassettes in 2020, those efforts have been remastered are being released together on vinyl as LP on 3/5 via Feel It and Drunken Sailor Records.
Songs From Another Life, the latest album from Spanish/Swedish supergroup The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, is one of the first Bandcamp-core albums in recent memory to properly embody power pop’s platonic ideals. The album exists in an alternate reality where ‘60s worship and alt-rock sensibilities never cross-pollinated.
Spiritual Mafia features members of EXEK, Spray Paint, Ausmuteants, etc which should give you a hint at Al Fresco, their debut album (out March 12th via Ever/Never and Anti Fade). While their pedigree precedes them, this is something a bit different, trading in the brainy agitation for something blunt and bludgeoning, a haze of proto punk sleaze and drugged out garage psych.
Aggressive and full of whiskey soaked punk disdain, the four songs that comprise Rides Again… are among Spodee Boy’s best, not just in concept but in execution. Make no mistake, these songs rip with an outlaw intensity. The feeling of cowboy culture, in the most unhinged of ways, is captured on “Dress The Part.”
Recorded on May 1st, 2019 as a radio session for Aire Libre 105.3 FM in Mexico City, all but one of the tracks are from their fifth album, 2019’s De Facto. 01052019 is unceasingly intense. A description that already fit the duo well, it does even more in this performance, with the band joined by Fernando Nuti, Andrea Davì and José Orozco.
The era of climate change is upon us, and this is what makes The Weather Station’s new record Ignorance so important. Tamara Lindeman has created a record unique to our time of impending climate disaster. She shares her experience with personal grief, loss, love, and joy through the lens of her climate anxieties.
Having spent over a decade playing together as a duo, the Bay Area’s Street Eaters have gone and done the unthinkable, they’ve added a guitarist to the mix. While sometimes less is more, in the case of Street Eaters’ upcoming EP, Simple Distractions, the guitars are a welcome addition, bringing new sonic heights to their sound.
One of the most wild and beautifully exploratory albums released in 2020 came from Population II, a psych-rock trio based out of Montreal. À la Ô Terre, comes to you from powerhouse psych label Castle Face Records, and is the soundtrack for a journey in and out of the chaotic edges as galaxies collide.
Lifeguard’s debut album, Dive, caught the attention of noisy music fans with an ear to the ground including the fine folks at Chunklet Industries (Shark Toys, Honey Radar, The Apples In Stereo). The Atlanta based label is set to release a limited hand-cut 7” single with two new Lifeguard tracks, Receiver b/w Sun Ra Jane.
On their debut full-length Tell Me I’m Bad, Editrix shifts through permutations of metal and punk faster than you can throw subgenre descriptors at them. For a solid thirty minutes, the lean and loud Massachusetts trio twists and turns through mathy riffs and pummeling breakdowns, phasing in and out of pocket grooves.
The Nashville trio Styrofoam Winos have no lead songwriter, no “front” person. The band’s voice, styles, and inspirations are collective, with each member pulling equal weight, from songwriting and vocals to their own personal styles of reflection. It all comes together wonderfully on their well conceived self-titled debut album.
The Fragiles are the brainchild of songwriter David Settle, a busy man who holds down multiple bands and releases albums worth of material every year. On and On is a wonderfully chewed up and fuzzed out record, whose lo-fi palette can almost keep the excellent pop songwriting at arm’s length, almost.
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