WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN’s music feels a million miles wide. Comprised of Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), Mat Ball (Big|Brave), Jonathan Downs, and Patch One (both of Ada), the quartet’s collective oeuvre offers the project a sense of familiarity, but opts for open collaboration.
Black Ends have spent the past five years establishing themselves as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most exciting new bands. Known for both explosive live shows and their lovingly dubbed “gunk pop” sound, the trio have long been one to watch, and they’re about to up to ante with their long awaited full length debut, Psychotic Spew.
“F Hard, B Forever” is the band’s first single from their BLIGHT. Records debut and a riveting introduction to the newfound super-project. Featuring members of Ugh God, Nyxy Nyx, and Sun Organ, Assisted Living’s stacked lineup of collaborators and pals informs the band’s effortless, fuckless, off the cuff delivery.
Queen Serene are back at it, getting ready to release their second album, appropriately titled 2, later this Fall. It’s an album that expands their palette into artier territory, embracing volume and repetition at times, the results both immersive and intricate. Abrasive but dynamic, their limitless noise is manifested with a tempered grace.
Hot off the heels of their breakthrough full length Aprender a Ser, the buzzing Mexico City duo Mint Field have hit us with a “pero espera, hay más.” Aprender a Ser Extended is a mini-LP composed of songs from the band’s initial Aprender sessions that were intentionally set aside to assist with listener digestion.
“Drive & Drive” and “Hyde Park,” the lead double single to hemlock’s upcoming record 444, are the first full band re-recordings of choice cuts from hemlock’s song-a-day-a-month series. If there was ever a time to tune into the project, it would be this very instant, because hemlock in full band mode is most certainly the real deal.
Comprised of Maia Mara (Halfsour), Adam Berkowitz (Kal Marks, Ex-Breathers), Travis Hagan (Halfsour, Pleaser), and Jenna Lemieux, the band are no strangers to the more nuanced side of indie rock, which makes Bad Cough’s debut all the more delightful. The band present an unhinged kind of ramshackle fuzz punk, heavy but undeniably fun.
Nate Terepka (formerly of Zula) has been developing his own take on avant-garde pop for over a decade. Five years after that dissolution of his band and a move to Portland, he’s back in the swing of things, set to release Not Yet, a new solo album that captures the prismatic nature of his songs as they reflect both joy and anguish.
Chicago’s Tension Pets were made for these times, their sound a whirlwind of warped technicolor punk and hyperactive noise pop. The band arrived delightfully weird yet locked in on Cubey, earning an apt comparison to Brainiac or potentially The Rentals (after a prolonged acid trip), their debut a particular kind of synth friend brilliance.
Chicago-based band, Interlay, has shared a new single today called “Medic,” offering the first sneak peak into their forthcoming EP, Hunting Jacket. With a guitar riff originally written a handful of years ago by Alexandria Ortgiesen, the song has since been fleshed out over the years, finding life within the band’s newest line up.
Marcel Wave understand the need for balance, a task that Maike Hale-Jones excels at. Their sound jitters beneath a deft combination of her sardonic and poetic spoken vocals and sweeping melodies that feel enormous by comparison. Featuring members of Sauna Youth and Cold Pumas, there’s a seasoned dexterity to their debut.
Pons keep their reckless spirit alive with "Can’t Stand It,” a berserk cover of the James Brown song as you’ve never heard it before. Out today via Dedstrange Records (APTBS, Goblin Daycare, Wah Together), the band trade in the godfather of soul’s traditional funky sound for something a bit freakier, a bit noisier, a bit more deranged.
On their new single "Shimmer Away," Philly’s Bleary Eyed make brain fog sound inviting. Those familiar with the band's previous work will immediately recognize their trademark distorted blend of synths and a burst of busy drum machine beats, setting the stage for blissful hooks and hazy vocal harmonies to emerge from the muck.
The brilliant Workers Comp, a band that splits the differences between lo-fi punk, Americana, and folk in it’s rawest distillation, are set to release their upcoming self-titled album, out May 31st via ever/never records, collecting all of their EPs and singles, highlighting both the humanity and labor driven dissatisfaction that lies in their hearts.
For Hunter Mockett, who makes hypnotic, closely held music as Aaberg, his first months in Philly offered a dichotomy: a chaotic city and a cozy domicile. On “Mouth,” the first single from Wishing Well (out August 2nd via Forged Artifacts), Mockett’s near-whisper vocals betray the sense of gratitude and perseverance.
