For everyone that needs a temporary escape from this reality and a trip into another musical dimension altogether, Mezzanine Swimmers are here for you. The solo project of Mike Green (Video Daughters) has followed up 2018’s Black Cat In Heat with Kneelin’ on a Knife, released this past Friday via Already Dead Tapes and Records.
When the world is on fire, sometimes it’s best to embrace your anger, and that’s exactly what Watcher have done with their latest album. Influenced by American death metal like Morbid Angel and Death, sludge rockers like Harvey Milk, along with Revolution Summer-era bands, Punishment is a clear refinement of Watcher’s sound.
Gone are the days of “Love, love me do”, which is why Eric Slick’s decision to make a love album, a top-to-bottom expression of sweet, childish, jealous, insecure, saccharine love, is so refreshing. It’s not cool to wear your heart on your sleeve, but Wiseacre isn’t concerned with aloof nonchalance.
Oceanator recently shared “Heartbeat,” the third and final single from their upcoming full length debut, Things I Never Said and now it has a video. The highly anticipated album, out August 28th via Plastic Miracles, captures Elise Okusami’s songwriting at it’s best, a strong effort that sits between pop, rock, and alternative radio gold.
With the exception of the title and cover, there’s no strong indication that this is a record made to fulfill an obligation required to exit a record contract. This is a fun and energetic set of songs that contains a sense of levity throughout. Even when the subject matter is weighty, there is either a tenderness or momentum.
On their third record, SUGAREGG, they’re at the top of their game, with what feels like an impossible amount of energy. It’s fascinating how easy it is to point to a song and know it’s Bully, they’re unmistakable, a band that sounds distinct in a crowded genre, in large part to bandleader Alicia Bognanno’s raspy, oft shouted vocals.
Helvetia is back with the charmingly lo-fi This Devastating Map. The solo project of Jason Albertini, an original member of Duster and former bass player for Built to Spill, each release from Helvetia manages to sound different from the last, yet usually sits within a common realm: fuzzy, home recorded psych-pop music.
Take our word for it, Leeds’ Blacklisters are the best noise rock band on the planet. We’re only a week away from the release of their third full length album, Fantastic Man, their first new LP in five years. The band continue their masterful approach at remaining willingly off the rails, but they do it with menace void of machismo, aiming just about all their efforts at showing just how dumb being tough looks.
Endless Space (Between You & I) is entirely a record of its own, suffused with a purity that only true dream pop can provide. Everything is ethereal (unsurprising from the person who released an EP titled Ethereality in 2018) and the songs never cease to sparkle, awash as they are in technicolor reverie.
V.V. Lightbody is the type of artist that will take your breath away. She writes expertly crafted songs that are steeped in emotional nuance and humble wisdom. On Make A Shrine Or Burn It her self described “Nap Rock” sound is built up into an endlessly entertaining album of complex arrangements and tightly performed musical moments.
In some ways, I Was Born Swimming is a perfect record for this period of isolation. Recounting intimate moments from her life (literally starting from her own birth on the titular track), Williams navigates through feelings of loneliness, anxiousness, and heartbreak with the goal of constantly moving forward.
Oakland’s Lunchbox have been releasing records since the mid 90’s but their upcoming album, After School Special, is their first for the legendary Slumberland Records (Peel Dream Magazine, Lake Ruth, Failed Flowers). The pairing is a match made in heaven, a dreamy home for a band making dreamy music.
The aptly titled To Be Surrounded…, which takes its title from a Walt Whitman poem, feels like a gift to everyone currently missing the energy of live performance. The album’s eleven tracks not only capture the excitement of a top-notch band bringing some of their most beloved songs to life, but also that of organic collaboration.
On Goodbye, Nowhere!, the sophomore record from Minneapolis’ Double Grave, emptiness faces a reckoning. The trio has been working towards this album for nearly half a decade, starting as Ego Death and evolving into Double Grave. Each subsequent release has brought them closer to perfecting their form of existential shoegaze.
