On their debut full-length, Washington, D.C. post-punk trio Puff Pieces brandishes wit and whimsy to inspect cultural phenomena like gentrification, wealth accumulation, and Sisyphean living. On “Money,” a throbbing two-minute nugget, Mike Andre’s lilting sing-song vocals highlight the parallels between autopilot living, financial needs, and boredom.
Big Fred is the project of Rochester resident Conor McCann. He handles guitar, bass and vocal duties on Pals with Dylan Vaisey on the drums. Big Fred’s debut release is five quick songs; the longest one clocks in just a bit over two minutes, but McCann manages to cram a lot of melancholy and humor into these brisk tunes.
The beginning of “Sap” combines a jangly guitar line with a constantly driving drum line and relentlessly building anthemic vocal tone, only to crash back down to the opening progression and build again. The cyclical nature of “Sap” keeps it well within a pop sphere and functions to build the song’s deep playability – indeed “Sap” performs best on loop accompanied by a beer or four.
If you’ve been following underground indie rock in Philadelphia lately, you’ll get a good sense of the psych-bedroom pop dished out on Cherry’s Gloom. The plaintive vocal delivery evokes fellow City of Brotherly Love brethren Gunk and Sun Organ (also ex-Kite Party). The melodies are simple but affecting; the song arrangements wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mikal Cronin record.
"Love Me Denver," the second single from the upcoming wonderfully titled album Burritos by BBDDM. A song for the morning after that showcases what they do so well. Layers upon layers that create an ethereal feeling. The vocals buried so deep in the mix that the words tend to be lost, but the sound and feeling of them are not, each member harmonizing together to create their signature sound.
Twisted post-punk and dark as hell psych rock are par for the course, strung out in every direction as the guitars work together to create a thick layered madness. At the core of their charm lies duel vocalists Sam Robinson and Meryl Schultz, often singing simultaneously, harmonizing at times and delightfully working against each at others. Beautiful, discordant, well structured yet deceptively loose, their music pushes as it pulls, transfixed in it's sinister witchy grooves.
Right on the heels of the band’s debut EP back in spring of 2015, Powers of Ten, Telepathic are self-releasing the 8-song Time Release on a run of 250 cassettes. It’s a capitalization on the thesis from Powers of Ten to keep the songs fixed and trimmed. No notes are wasted on these Hüsker Dü inspired rave-ups.
An impressive debut to say the least, Townie Garbage is the sound of a band at their beginning, mining their influences as they develop their own sound. The trio, formed in the late summer months have created an inviting debut, it’s complex and determined, full of songs that ebb and flow from crashing tides to the most gentle of hazy breezes.
Romantic States are a Baltimore duo consisting of Ilenia Madelaire on drums/vocals and Jim Triplett on guitar/vocals. They specialize in a minimal and wistful kind of dream pop that recalls a stripped-down and more straightforward Slowdive. The duo is releasing a 7-inch record on January 11, 2016 on Nebraskan Coast entitled Take My Hand and Run.
Malatese are a four-piece group by way of Harrisonburg, Virginia who realized years ago that their attempt at being a “volume based band” no longer propelled their artistry forward in a meaningful way. I’m Just Gonna Get in This Fucking Helicopter showcases their continued evolution and growth as a cerebral and experimental unit.
Bilge Rat's sound is a dark and winding blend of outsider indie rock with the twisted post-punk unpredictability of the New England scene we're so fond of here at Post-Trash. There's a great deal of dissonance, both in the music and their song-structures, as alternatively tuned guitars and interesting chord changes create the perfect texture for Michael Kusek's dejected but vibrant vocals.
The second song from the band's upcoming Kyle Gilbride (Swearin') produced, Of Wandering. A jangly blast of sardonic pop music about appealing to the masses, the song offers the age ol' chestnust, "you're not my market anyway". The duel vocals of Madeline Meyer and Dan Colanduno harmonize beautifully in the song's verses, sputtering wonderfully out of control during the hooks.
"Hội An," a grinding industrial influenced drone song that moves with monolithic intensity as Pantaleo is joined by Bueno's Mike DiBenedetto. Pantaleo's dense rhythm barrels forward with a sense of purpose over top DiBenedetto's ominous soundscapes, intensifying as the song unfolds and the rhythm expands from the locked in polyrhythmic trance.
Dead Ass brings in a sonic blend of post-hardcore and indie-punk. Mark Fletcher, Max Kagan and J Boxer all share equal songwriting duties, trading off lead vocals in a style that takes a hint from the early days of the Beastie Boys. The 15-minute run time of Dead Ass is greatly used to exemplify the diverse range of songwriting influences that have inspired Stringer, with each track providing its own variant of modern punk rock
