If last year’s debut LP delivered an anthology of twee-punk fairy tales, Parsnip’s new EP represents a burgeoning adolescence for the band as they test out new tones and take on larger themes. On Adding Up, the quartet buoys a scrappiness and more robust sound while still glimpsing the joy of their previous work.
In an unprecedented move, Chicago’s Options are sharing a remix of their song “Faster” before we’ve heard “Faster” in its original form. Its full of intrigue and mystery. While the source material is set to arrive on the latest Options album, Wind’s Gonna Blow, due out May 22nd, the remix is here and ready.
If change is bad, Stuck makes the best of it. The record, front to back, is solid. It’s as dense as it is brief - the band wastes zero time plunging to exceptional depths in both arrangement and lyricism. Stuck’s debut contains the kind of post-punk precision and detail begging for repeated listens. Nothing’s overthought, but it’s all thought out.
New York’s Pleaser is the duo of Carrie Furniss (ex-Birthing Hips) and Travis Hagan (halfsour), but knowing their previous work doesn’t really paint the picture that is their latest band. The pair go for a decidedly more electronic sound with Pleaser, a band that seemingly finds the pair influenced primarily by dating based reality shows.
This is esoteric and cerebral rock. The use of Agitprop (political propaganda, especially in art or literature) in the album’s title defines this as highbrow music, clearly, but Peel Dream Magazine’s quality ensures its never pretentious or fawning. It’s clear that Stevens thinks consciously and acutely about the meaning of his music.
Isobel Campbell emerges solo after a quiet fourteen years. Her latest album, There Is No Other… presents a bit of contemporary seriousness without overshadowing her familiar, dreamy sound. There Is No Other is different from anything we’ve already heard from Campbell. On this album emerges her new persona: a soft-spoken activist.
Philary is the solo project of Alex Molini (Pile, Jackal Onasis, Stove), who has cultivated an artful combination of heaviness and harmony on I Complain. Molini melds sludgy, bass-driven riffs with catchy and melodic vocal lines; it’s a winning combination, and yet it is performed here in a way we haven’t quite heard before.
Live records are often boring, but this King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard collection finds new ground, and finds an interesting cue. The songs of the record are stylistic landscapes, aesthetic insights that touch a style that embraces from psychedelic rock albums like Gumboot Soup to the stoner metal of Infest the Rats’ Nest.
The band is comprised of Emerson Stevens and Candace Clement, both formerly of Western Mass’ late great Bunny’s A Swine, a true staple of slop-rock for all eternity. The duo got together to make some new lo-fi music, recording on mics not recommended for recording, and generally giving it their signature best.
Larger than the sum of its parts, Trace Mountains’ Lost in the Country is honest and lasting. Each little hook, vocal flair, snare hit. The songs keep an enduring pace, excited to get moving, even if it’s just to the woods out the front door. The drum kit hikes the path so the lyrics can admire the world and the melody can whistle along the way.
