Taking Radar b/w Loose Cricket, due out October 29th via Chunklet (Man or Astro-Man?, Honey Radar, Spodee Boy), comes with the resilience and technicality of Unwound in their youth, built on dynamics and tension. It doesn’t even need to be said that the band are in their teens, but it does make it all the more impressive.
Styrofoam Winos is a shimmering quilt of folk, rock, post-punk, soul, pop, and country, stitched together by three incredibly strong and worth-listening-to Nashville singer-songwriters: Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, and Joe Kenkel. These are incredibly versatile, never in danger of sounding bland, never at risk of repeating themselves.
Chicago’s Courtesy have been doing their own thing for a decade now, making indie rock that’s both electronic and experimental, but also draws from key elements of lo-fi production and slacker punk songwriting. The band return with their latest full length, Check The Milk, due out November 19th via Seasick Records.
The Aisles EP finds Olsen journeying away from her usual songwriting and into the world of covers. Specifically, it features covers of songs from the 1980s: everyone’s favorite mullet and big sleeve decade. Everything from the songs chosen to cover art—which features Olsen sporting a mullet and bright blue eyeshadow—oozes 80s nostalgia.
Nolan Potter is an exceptional musician and an exceptional songwriter, and the wide expanses of his progressive psych come into view repeatedly on Music Is Dead as he shifts from movement to movement. Darting between ethereal moments of progressive beauty and tension to cosmic pop, there’s a heavy dose of psych coating it all.
Celebrating their 20th (!!) year making music together, NOATS are making the most of it with the release of their latest album, Ceasefire Violations, due out 11/8. The record marks their first new release since 2015’s split LP with Palberta, but as the six year draught comes to an end, it becomes immediately clear that it was worth the wait.
Los Angeles’ I’m Into Life Records is getting ready to release Creepy Covers, a compilation of well… creepy covers. With submissions from Sad13, Helvetia, Kal Marks, 100 Watt Horse, and more, the proceeds from the record will be donated to Trans Defense Fund LA, providing safety kits for trans women across the city and general mutual aid.
A.D. Flowers are ready for their self-titled sophomore EP, due out October 15th via Infinite Weed Records. The band make pop-infused music in the classic sense of the word, naming The Beatles as a core influence, but their sound skews closer to 90’s alternative rock with maybe a pinch of early punk swagger.
Happiness’ approach to “the slow” has been touted as a “90s Chicago throwback,” which is not too far off in terms of general description of their approach to sludgy slowness. The trio stretch their perpetual sonic muscles, remapping an indie lineage that feels further drawn out of frame. Every track becomes its own little sonic nugget.
While they were only together for three years time, Archeology proves to be an essential find, a collection of the band’s self-titled EP with six previously unreleased songs, two live tracks, and more. Regardless if you’re familiar with The Stick Figures or not, this is a great listen of a band making taut post-punk in the era of The B-52s and Pylon.
The unrelenting force that is Full of Hell has returned with their latest album, Garden of Burning Apparitions, showing why they are the biggest band in grindcore right now. In only twenty minutes, the band packs idea after idea without letting up for a single second. The riffs, the vocals, the percussion, everything is as intense as ever.
