This split from Algae Dust and Hennen, otherwise known as Alison Setili (Frankie Valet) and Hannah Rainey (Shady Bug), respectively, shows off a different side from both of these St. Louis artists. The songs are full of haunting and sprightly bedroom pop that will find wide appeal from its two rather distinct offerings and stylistic differences.
Essential Aliens, due out June 25th via Joyful Noise Recordings, is a record that processes the monotony of the time and warps it into something layered, a lucid dream that loops and shifts. Helvetia’s brilliance lies as much in Albertini’s songwriting as it does in its tonality and production choices.
Sharkula connects again with Max Allison’s ever-glitched Mukqs moniker for Take Caution On The Beach, the most lurid and fruitful Sharkula collaboration yet. Wharton’s meandering verses wallow and wedge into Allison’s rhythmic nooks and cornerless crannies, the fluid beats mirroring the MC’s signature, hot-off-the-cuff delivery.
It’s been five years since Brooklyn via Japan’s Hard Nips released the Bunny EP, but the long wait is over as they’ve announced their next full length, Master Cat. Due out June 4th via Rochester’s Dadstache Records, the quartet’s last is inspired by 80’s post-punk and alternative rock (think Blondie, B-52’s), driven through a garage pop lens.
Wombo are one of the more exciting new bands we’ve come across this year. While they released their fantastic full length debut last year, we hadn’t caught wind of the record until Fire Talk announced the reissue back in March. With a renewed lease on their LP, the band announced it’s follow-up EP, Keesh Mountain.
Partnering with American Dreams, Rousay’s latest, a softer focus, is a subtle new leaf. All the usual elements of her previous recordings are still here, albeit with greater spaciousness; Rousay’s partnership with a handful of chamber collaborators are a key element in that, imparting her songs their own dusk-tinged shadows.
On Sour Widows’ second LP, Crossing Over, there is a departure from the alt pop-infused sound of their debut, instead deriving their power from a place of sheer tenderness and meditation. Despite being recorded remotely due to the pandemic, the Bay Area trio has managed to create a harmonious and expansive atmosphere.
Swollen, the project of Shady Bug’s Tom Krenning, is disarming and sinister, like a bad trip ringing inside your head in the quiet of the night. Their album, Smothered, due out June 25th via Super Wimpy Punch, is a captivating listen that encapsulates its own world, one where the aesthetic choice is disorienting and minimal.
Pending any further announcements, It’s the last Bandcamp Friday on the books. The site has gone out of its way to help artists and labels during these pandemic times and the appreciation has been met by audiences showing up and supporting the musicians and artists they care about. The intentions were good. The results were good. We’ve got one more!
Deadguy is still fertile ground to excavate for modern metalcore bands. Take one listen to Colonial Wound’s first release Untitled. The vocals are similar but are still modern, adding a much needed update to this style of the genre. Degradation only ups the ante, bringing in more of a noise rock influence, not too dissimilar to Exhalants or Unsane.
Pinpointing our modern hell in a few brief punk songs, Kneeling In Piss gives us more. Types of Cults is their fourth release and their third EP from a series of recordings made over the last year. Signature to the band’s sound is finding that right piece of music and playing it until it’s all used up, with a “concrete lack of skill.”
Crafted intermittently over the course of five years, Feedback & PB is a dense and complex work, flowing dizzyingly from hook to hook, interspersed with noise, found-recording style interludes, and madcap arpeggiating synths. The hooks may be sweet or sour, but they change fast and are always complex and vivid.
New Orleans art punks Special Interest dropped their second album The Passion Of at a time when many needed a soundtrack to their suddenly very dystopian lives. In June 2020, there was civil unrest peaking around the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police -- in the midst of a pandemic.
While the band claims to have always focused on the idea of “evil” and the perversity of playing hopeless songs as gently as possible, album title Evil Joy specifically refers to the pain and pleasure in a deteriorating relationship. Lead single “Where The Good Ones Go” fits right in with most of these ideas.
