Act Surprised is the latest in the lengthy travails of beloved ‘indie’ punk trio Sebadoh, that has seen the band go through countless ups and downs in a myriad of ways. Sebadoh have had quite an eclectic career from the early ‘lo-fi’ albums of fractured folk and collages of noise, to a period of punk blasts and heart on the sleeve songcraft that garnered some acclaim
For a debut album, it’s a doomy fist pump for those who wander and eat berries and work too damn hard just to get nowhere but the place you started. And already with two tours in their mullets, Gilliver is living their days out fixing up a school bus and farming up a dangerous cord of kindling for the next heart-shaker.
Battery Park, NYC: July 4, 2008 is exactly what you can expect from a band that had recorded in 1987’s Sister and 1988’s Daydream Nation. In fact there are the characteristic evolutions of the noise that make Sonic Youth so lovable. Redundancies of melancholic feedback that tell of humanity in its highest poetic form of poverty and essentiality.
Due out digitally on June 28th, with the tape release to follow, each band are offering a pair of noisy tracks, displaying a disparity in their otherwise similar approaches, one dense and overdriven, the other nuanced and prolonged. It’s a great balance between their sounds, complimenting each other as they in turn highlight each other’s differences.
New York City-based Jeanines are a duo comprised of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith who, together, make music that is equal parts wistfully nostalgic and strikingly present. Their self-titled, debut album for Slumberland - which follows the release of a few demo tracks, a standalone single and two covers - is a collection of razor sharp, 60s influenced indie pop.
RONG are your mutant freak punk dreams come true. The Boston band have been kicking around for a year or so now, having released a fantastic split with Landowner last summer, and now the band are ready to unleash (and i do mean “unleash”) their triumphantly rampant full length debut, Wormhat, on July 2nd.
