by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our weekly recap of this week's new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web. It's generally written in the early hours of the morning and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking out all the music we've included. There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.

*Disclaimer: We are making a conscious effort not to include any artist in our countdown on back-to-back weeks in order to diversify the feature, so be sure to check the "further listening" as well because it's often of top-notch quality too.

FULL OF HELL | “Silmaril“

We’re pretty sure that most of the Post-Trash audience (and contributors) are not big fans of metal, but we’re going to keep trying anyway. There’s something very special about Full of Hell and their brand of extreme grindcore. Highly combustible and demonic sounding, the Ocean City, MD band could bring the apocalypse with them and we’d be too immersed in their utterly disgusting grooves to care. “Silmaril,” the second single from their upcoming album, Weeping Choir, is a menacing swarm of vocals both croaked and grumbled (with guest contributions from Paulo Paguntalan), a song that sounds like several nightmares personified at once, as the band absolutely destroy structural sensibility of the name of innovative chaos.

GOLDEN PELICANS | “Stray Dogs”

Orlando’s Golden Pelicans return with a follow-up to the great Disciples of Blood with their fourth album (and first for 12XU Records), the terrifically named Grinding For Gruel. The punk band have always reminded me a more agitated and reckless version of Hot Snakes, thanks primarily to Erik Grinewicz’s raw howl and in part the band’s surfy punk shredding. Lead single “Stray Dogs” opens with prolonged feedback before ripping right into a corrosive groove and Grinewicz’s garbling vocals yelps. It’s melodic but primal, a constantly moving wave of punk aggression even though it’s essentially a song about dancing and “stray dogs do what stray dogs gonna do.”

PINCH POINTS | Shibboleth

Following last year’s Mechanical Injury EP, Melbourne’s Pinch Points will release their full length, Moving Parts this May. The band’s tightly wound post-punk is accented by their duel vocals and well coiled rhythms, but it’s their knack for snide lyrics that really shines. On “Shibboleth,” the record’s first single, the song starts slow and twangy, a disorienting approach, but quickly warps into rattled contusions, and their sardonic lyrical brilliance. The song is about shitty promoters and otherwise, who look the part but may not always be what they seem, as they shout, “he dressed like one of us, he spoke like one of us, half man, i think half snake” in between jerky guitars.

REAL BLOOD | “This Is Gonna Hurt” EP

Real Blood’s core of Kerry Kalberg (guitar/vocals) and Nick Dooley (drums) were once two thirds of Flagland, one of the DIY’s scene’s (now defunct) best-kept-secrets. With their new project however, the duo is joined by Coby Chafets (ex-Ubetcha) on bass and the trio are set to release their debut EP, This Is Gonna Hurt, on April 26th. The record is a call back to the glory days of Flagland, the riddled anxiety pop rippers that only Kalberg can write, the madness before the band’s prog-induced finale. As one of the more gifted songwriters I’ve known, these songs are genuine punk gold, a set of three tracks that are so rich with hooks and memorable moments that they can wind and twist structures without losing an ounce of pop accessibility.

THANKS FOR COMING | “Part I: You’re Welcome”

Brooklyn’s Thanks For Coming’s latest release, No Problem, is a massive 24 songs with 24 videos, each captured by different directors that help to bring Rachel Brown’s visions to life as they see them. Following several years of releasing new music every few weeks, Brown and their band were patient with this project, a collection of incredible songs that continue to prove they are one of the best “living room pop” songwriters we have these days. Post-Trash had the pleasure of premiering the album’s first six songs and videos together as a set known as You’re Welcome, featuring two of my personal favorites, the hilarious internet anthem “thanksforcoming.bandcamp.com,” a song that subtly revolves around disconnection in the age of connectivity, and the roaring slacker pop burn out of “A Character You Can Relate To.” The latter has a great video that finds Brown wandering as though lost in a new planet as they sing “you are a character in a film that you can’t watch, you are a character and you don’t even know the plot.”

YOUR OLD DROOG | “It Wasn’t Even Close”

Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog just released what could be the year’s best hip-hop albums, and he did it with little to no warning or press buzz. He’s been one of the more promising MCs for the past years since his great second album Packs, shinning the light on the early 90’s focus on lyricism without the nonsense that runs rampant through today’s mainstream rap albums. The songs on his latest, It Wasn’t Even Close, rarely have hooks, and they’re better for it, Droog simply going in conceptually with each song, enough clever bars to create a classic. He’s honest about his place in the rap game as he’s laid low when the industry came calling but also reminds you on the opening rhyme “quiet as kept, I’m the best, but it’s like if you ain’t screaming it all the time, it ain’t true, there’s no depth.” The record is built on non-traditional beats (“Babushka,” “Funeral March (The Dirge)”) and dusty boom-bap perfection, each lending themselves to Droog’s fiery lyricism, rapping circles around the otherwise casual soundscapes, his poetic nature popping off the page in every track.

Further Listening:

Fuzzy Meadows: The Week's Best New Music (April 15th - April 21st)