Curtis Godino is sort of both mastermind and middleman here, as the album is billed in the form of Curtis Godino presents The Midnight Wishers. Although full of Godino and Kramer's touches, it’s The Midnight Wishers who act as the medium to present the ideas of transporting the sound of iconic girl groups into the left-field modern age.
To commence 2022, Feeble Little Horse have released an expanded reissue of Modern Tourism via Crafted Sounds. The new ten track EP features all the original material, unreleased demos, and a My Bloody Valentine cover. Here, Feeble Little Horse and label-mates Gaadge share covers of each other’s songs.
Archive Material is a tidy 38 minute grab bag of influences that ultimately adds up to something unique. For a relatively short album, the individual songs often feel longer in the best way possible. In the landscape of dour post-punk, it’s nice to have a band stop by, roll down the windows every now and then, and let some sunshine in.
“Shot Down” is the album’s second single, a rapid fire blast of feedback riddled psych-pop. Despite the song’s hurried tempo, this one feels like classic jangle pop at its core, reminiscent of a grittier version of the band’s noted influences, The Shop Assistants and Black Tambourine in the sing-song melody.
Sonny Falls is back with the first single from their just announced full length Stoned, Beethoven Blasting. “Wringing Out My Brain” is the first preview from the Chicago-based project led by Ryan “Hoagie Wesley” Ensley. Written after nine months of no-gigs-a-go-go, “Wringing” is an impulsive celebration of collaborative creativity.
After having all of their loose material gathered on Thankology, we finally get Leeds’ best noise rock band Thank’s debut album, Thoughtless Cruelty. This is a record that is meant to be played as loud as possible, an album that is filled with clever lyrics, a clear nihilistic view of the world, and pounding instrumentals.
Hex Sign, the debut album from Ann Arbor via Nashville’s Brianna Bartelt aka Bri Barte has been a long time coming, but the album has a sense of nuance and grace far beyond your typical debut. WIth influences that include legends PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple, Björk, and Cat Power, the collective strengths are channelled throughout.
Big Thief are some of the only artists right now whose mission runs entirely counter to the world we live in. Their music leaves behind cities, machines, and rigid rhythms, where most of even our best music these days seems intent on replacing the sounds of human beings with a false mechanical magnificence.
Set to release Paint By Numbers, Vol. 1 on February 25th, Goon have shifted away from the fuzzed out grunge-pop they are best known for in favor of something a bit more abstract and softly psychedelic. Together with a new line-up, it’s a welcome change that finds them shedding away generic edges and coming into their own.
Psychic Graveyard are one of the best bands making noise rock in the US and they’re teaming up with USA Nails, one of the best in the UK, for a new split 12”. The bands are in fine form with eleven new songs between them, bringing different but complementary styles together for something viscerally aggressive and disarmingly disorienting.
The garage punk outfit brought their blistering live sound to the studio on their debut Syrup, released through Marthouse Records last year, their first release after a pair of singles in 2019. The nine-track EP is superbly delivered through fuzz-dripped power pop and cleverly tight post-punk that seep with the band's personality.
Even from a cursory listen, it’s quite obvious that Ants From Up There is a different record than its predecessor. Much of the album was written in the studio, with each of the band’s seven members contributing ideas and democratically building the finished product. That difference in process is evident.
