by Benji Heywood, Dan Goldin, and Kris Handel
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our 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. 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.
ANNA MCCLELLAN
“Jam The Phones”
It would be safe to assume a new Anna McClellan album is on the way. Following the release of recent singles “Like A Painting” and “Hold You Close,” the LA via Omaha songwriter is back with her third new song since July, and it’s a doozy. “Jam The Phones” is built on gorgeous piano refrains and a sense of vulnerability, as shit continues to crumble, sometimes you just need to “cry your eyes out”. There’s a beauty to it all, McClellan’s voice and lyrical gifts are among the best of our generation, her gorgeous croon is strong and surefooted yet fragile, her honest feelings become reflective, personalized but directed out into the world. “Jam The Phones” is a strong song of collective sorrow, and more importantly the need to overcome it, adapt, and grow. It’s a song that looks beyond the erosion, finding the love in the world wherever you can. - Dan Goldin
HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE
“Word”
It’s no longer news when Horse Jumper of Love releases a good album. Disaster Trick, the Boston band’s fifth, delivers. What I’ve enjoyed is the band’s steady growth; each album adds elements to the palette without abandoning earlier motifs. Songs like “Snow Angel” and “Wait by the Stairs” bloom with lusher, heavier overtones. Frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos may have cited Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2” as inspiration, but to my ears, the music of Disaster Trick—and “Word” specifically—is far more colorful in its minimalism. “Word” is starker, messier, the slow core of an album that’s at turns breezy and devastating. The song and its evocative lyrics strike me as a late-period Cy Twombly drawing, unkempt and colorful, insalubrious but approachably so. Twombly’s 2008 Gagosian retrospective was titled “In Beauty it is finished;” that’s about as apt a description of Horse Jumper of Love as there is. - Benji Heywood
THE JESUS LIZARD
“Moto(R)”
Rack, the first new The Jesus Lizard album in 26 years is nothing short of astounding. After a near three decade absence, we would have understood if the album was simply “okay” at best, but it would seem the band are reinvigorated. The band’s signature unhinged magic remains in fine form, still wrought and mangled, full of reckless personality (courtesy of David Yow), and a shaky sense of momentum (courtesy of Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims, and Mac McNeilly). All these years later and The Jesus Lizard manage to sound vital, hungry, and forever sordid. “Moto(R),” the record’s third single is explosive, riding a deep groove with a harsh bite, sounding like a damaged vision of the motor city’s proto-punk with the manic boogie and melodic yelps that are signature to the band’s piercing noise rock splendor. - Dan Goldin
RIPPED TO SHREDS
“Force Fed”
Good grief and hold on to your butts. San Jose’s Ripped To Shreds are getting ready to release Sanshi, their fourth full length album, on September 27th via Relapse Records (Pig Destroyer, Poison Ruïn, Coalesce). Having released lead single “Perverting the Funeral Rites, Stripping for the Dead” a few weeks back, the quartet treat us to “Force Fed,” a brutal and unnerving blast of death metal depraviltiy. There’s a bit of Autopsy in the Ripped To Shreds DNA, with the oozing scent of punk in the fringes of their impenetrable stampede, but much like those Bay Area legends, Ripped To Shreds tear through OSDM with a grinding intensity. Chopping heads at high velocity. “Force Fed” is an all pounding assault on the senses, drums at breakneck speeds, duel riffs set to decimate, whipping structures, and primal howling conjured from the great below. - Dan Goldin
ULTRA LIGHTS
"Scene of the Crime"
Ultra Lights are a four piece punk/garage group from Atlanta, GA with a handful of singles to their name and "Scene of the Crime," their latest release, delivers a jolt of nervy and melodic menace. The guitars of John Robinson and Leela Hoehn dive around each other with abandon as Robinson's vocals have a cutting and snide delivery that plays well with this mid-90s guitar fueled piece of indie rock. "Scene of the Crime" will remind you of a group like Archers of Loaf, of which there is a nice smirking lyrical/instrumental nod of the cap to that particular forbearer of this driving angsty vein of indie rock celebration. Ultra Lights show themselves to be a tight band that are primed to scratch an itch for those craving playful melodies that unabashedly revel in throwing their cares to the wind and a desire to get you on your feet and to join the musical party. - Kris Handel
WENDY EISENBERG
“HM”
Wendy Eisenberg is a tireless and enduringly creative musician, be it either challenging the listener with solo guitar improvisation or accompanying a massive list of ensembles/collaborators (Bill Orcutt, Caroline Davis, etc). They have also released a handful of solo albums that have often offered an engaging and intimate folk-driven approach, with "HM" serving as the latest single off her upcoming release, Viewfinder. Eisenberg's impressive guitar work shows flashes of how crafty their playing with song form truly can be. Amidst a flurry of trumpet and trombone, provided by Chris Williams and Zekerey el-Magharbel, respectively, the horns flitter and sting as guitar notes ring and churn in the frantic undercurrent. Eisenberg and the cast of characters’ fluid engagement with each other delivers dynamic swells and a sense of unease that is invigorating and inspiring to immerse yourself in. - Kris Handel
Further Listening:
A DEER A HORSE “Have Faith” | A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS "You Got Me" | BENCH PRESS "Computer Hands" | DALE CROVER "Spoiled Daisies" (feat. Ty Segall) | DANCER "Priority Girl" | DAY JOB "Head To Wall" (Quicksand cover) | THE DEALS "Do You Wanna Go With Me To The Cloud Nothings Show?" | DREAM MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT "Avon Barksdale" (feat. Inspectah Deck & Ruste Juxx) | DUSTER & DIRTY ART CLUB "Anhedonia II b/w Ecstasy Cowgirl" | ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT "IDKS" | ELIAS RØNNENFELT "No One Else" | FIEVEL IS GLAUQUE "As Above So Below" | FREAK GENES "Reflective Surface" | G2G "Pop Song" | HYPER GAL "Dot Dot Dot" | ILLITERATES "Tour Tape 24" | IMMORTAL BIRD "Plastered Sainthood" | JAE SKEESE "Brick After Brick (Ground Level)” | JOHN DAVIS "Take My Brains Out" | KILLARMY "Splitting Atoms" (feat. Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa, & La The Darkman) | KURIOUS "Unknown Species" | LOCAL H "P.J. Soles (2024 Remaster)" | MERCE LEMON "Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild" | MO DOTTI "Lucky Boy" | ODETTA HARTMAN "Good Socks" | OSEES "SORCS 80 LIVE HELIPAD DTLA" | SCRUNCHIES "Generator" | S.H.I.T. “Corporate Funded Killing Technology” | SHOVE "King Diamond" | SNAKESKIN “Skull Kid” | SNOOZER “Fadda Radda" | SPRING SILVER "It's Imperative" | TETCHY "Mommy" | VENUS TWINS "Flaming Skull on TV" | WE ARE WINTER'S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN "Uncloudy Days" | WEAK SIGNAL "Rich Junkie" | WHISPER HISS "Movable Objects" | WHISPER STATES "Ghosts Rode" | XIU XIU "Arp Omni" / "Veneficium"