If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Abraham Rowe It feels like it's been forever since the last album from The Secret Sisters. Not too many musicians start off the way Laura and Lydia did. In 2009 they showed up at an audition in Nashville. They had never performed together in public, and three months later they were signed to a major label. They opened for Levon Helm and Ray LaMontagne on their first ever tour. Then, in 2015, they were left without a label and were dealing with a lawsuit and potential bankruptcy. That led them to crowdsource their third album, and luckily for them, Brandi Carlile asked to produce. "Tennessee River Runs Low" is the first single from that album. Without a major label, The Secret Sisters are finally allowed to develop their own sound. Their first album was pure classic country (and was mostly filled with classic country covers), their second was more of the same with just enough growth, and "Tennessee River Runs Low" moves in a great new direction. Do...

Hailing from Montreal, She-Devils bring this odd and unique sound and feel to their music. Inspired as much by film and animation as they are other music, they bring a visual feel to their sound. Their latest single, "The World Laughs," mixes the world of groovy 60s Hawaiian beach movies with early new wave. They use vintage, early electronic gear to achieve this sound. When their list of influences include Gregg Araki, John Waters, and Quentin Tarantino, their sound and look make perfect sense. While this would have fit perfectly into the lounge revival of the 90s, this doesn't feel like a 90s throwback. Instead, it takes sounds that were big in the 60s, 80s, and 90s and combines them into a brand new sound while still being classic. You can watch the video for "The World Laughs" below. For more on She-Devils, check out their website , Facebook , and Twitter . The new album from She-Devils will be available May 19 on Secretly Canadian.

Earlier this month, I declared that Bad Breeding "... might be the freshest take on heavy music that I've heard in years." With "Whip Hand," the second single off their upcoming album, that becomes even more apparent. What I didn't say while discussing "The More the Merrier" is that Bad Breeding reminded me of Refused. I didn't say that since sonically they don't remind me of Refused, but the way they mixed together punk and metal in this insanely new, loud, and noisy way reminded me of the first time I heard The Shape of Punk to Come . "Whip Hand" starts off with a snippet of what is best described as muzak, so I'm reminded even more of Refused's classic album. And then the onslaught of loud comes, in what can best be described as Lightning Bolt meets Hatebreed, which is a comparison I never thought I'd ever make. This is all packed into the most intense 3:01 song ever. You can listen to "Whip Hand" be...

Photo via Facebook Pearl Jam may have popularized the multi-band Neil Young cover with their pretty much constant cover of "Rockin' In the Free World," but they certainly don't have an exclusive over it. Screaming Females have teamed with Wild Rice to cover Neil's not quite as well known "Fuckin' Up." Recorded live at Monty Hall in Jersey City, NJ for WMFU last month, both bands (including both drummers) tear into the classic. It's a pretty faithful cover, which is helped by it being one of Young's more rocking tunes. Plus, it's a Neil Young song, so there's plenty of room for multiple Marissa Paternoster guitar solos, which are always welcome. (I counted at least four, maybe five depending on if that last one can be counted as two.) You can watch Screaming Females and Wild Rice's version of "Fuckin' Up" below. For more on Screaming Females, check out their website . For Wild Rice, check their Facebook .

Lots to get to today... Album of the Week : Artist : Desperate Journalist Album : Grow Up Quick Description : Poppy post punk. Why You Should Listen : You still have some Doc Martens in the closet and want to party. Overall Thoughts : My favorite listen of the week from a band I did not know at all prior to this release, the best way I can describe them is Bully/Wolf Alice merged with Savages to give a fairly unique post-punkish sound that still has some solid poppy elements. A lot of releases this week and few truly grabbed me the way this one did. I sent it to Ken to listen to very early on in my listen, and this might be one of those weird dark horse albums that stays in my rotation for a while. Well done. Recommendation : Best of the week. Artist : Luke Reed Album : Won't Be There Quick Description : Indie poppish singer-songwriter stuff. Why You Should Listen : You need that album to usher in the spring/summer months. Overall Thoughts : A member of Bent Sha...

Mountain Man (the Vermont folk trio, not the Worcester, MA metal band) have joined in on the Our First 100 Days project with a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts." "Love Hurts" is one of the most perfect songs to cover, as versions from Gram Parsons and Nazareth can attest to. Mountain Man's version is virtually perfect and keeps in line with the folk/country origins of the song. Solo versions always seem to miss the harmony, but Mountain Man's specialty is harmonizing, and "Love Hurts" is made for their style perfectly. You can listen to Mountain Man's version of "Love Hurts" below. The Our First 100 Days project is releasing a song for each of Trump's first 100 days in office. It features a new, exclusive song every day, and all proceeds will benefit organizations that work on climate change, immigration, women's rights, etc. It features a diverse and growing group of musicians including Hurray for the Riff Ra...

Photo via Facebook For the first single off of his upcoming album, Rock n Roll Consciousness , Thurston Moore is going back to right where he left off from Sonic Youth. Up until now, Moore's post Sonic Youth work has been indulging in his more folky or metal sides, "Smoke of Dreams" is pure late Sonic Youth era Moore. It's a chilled out jam, much more along the lines of a jam band than the punk or post-punk that defined much of Sonic Youth's sound. In the late 90s and beyond, Sonic Youth, especially Thurston, started getting less aggressive and showing off their hippie and beat poetry inspired sound. "Smoke of Dreams" is super trippy and is perfect for anyone missing the 2000s Sonic Youth sound. You can watch the video for "Smoke of Dreams" below. Rock n Roll Consciousness will be out on April 28 on Caroline International. It's a five song album, so I'm pretty sure this is going to be Moore's hippiest album yet. For more on Th...

Photo by Angel Ceballos I always wonder why more established artists don't collaborate with their up and coming counterparts. It seems like it would help both artists reach a new base of like-minded fans. Plus, it's just cool. You get it sometimes with Trent Reznor and David Bowie, Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples, or Jack White and Loretta Lynn. It always seems to be the younger, hipper artist writing and/or producing for the veteran artist. That's not the case with the new Skating Polly EP. The duo, comprised of step-sisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse, joined up with Louise Post and Nina Gordon of the recently reunited Veruca Salt, who co-wrote the EP with them. "Hail Mary" really shows the influence. The song is just heavy and dark, and seems to combine the earlier, more indie rock leanings of Veruca Salt with the heavier, more rockin' side the leaned towards later on. Plus, Gordon and Post really showed Skating Polly how to harmonize. The result is ...

Photo by Michael Andrade The latest single from Washington DC's Flasher seems pretty straightforward, but the song has a few odd elements all mixed together. It includes the band's old school DC emo sound like they had back on "Destroy."  "Winnie" pulls in this new funkiness, in an almost glammed out T-Rex style groove. And then the song pulls out this great almost Mascis-esque guitar solo to close. And then there are the lyrics. Sung in a melodic, post punk meets Malkmus fashion, the lyrics are taken mostly from pundits on CNN or pharmaceutical commercials. The chorus of "These feet want to keep the beat moving" is straight out of a diabetes commercial. You can listen to "Winnie" below. It will be released on Sister Polygon on May 5. You can pre-order your copy of the single here . For more on Flasher, check out their Bandcamp . Current tour dates are below the song. Wed. Mar. 22 - Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn  Fri. Mar. 24 - ...

Charming Disaster are a band, but there is this odd almost theatrical element to their music that gives them a touch of art project to their sound. Their songs are ..." stories about love, death, crime, ancient mythology, and the paranormal." Comprised of Jeff Morris and Ellia Bisker, the duo is about to release their new album, Cautionary Tales , next month. The album opener, "Sympathetic Magic," starts as a pretty standard folkish, Americana song, with Morris and Bisker trading off vocals, and then intertwining separate verses over each other. And then the orchestration and theatrics come in, much more than the usual Charming Disaster song. Lyrically, the song seems to be about falling in love at a seance, sung from both sides of the meeting. You can listen to "Sympathetic Magic" below. Cautionary Tales  will be released April 21. The album "... ." You can get your copy via Bandcamp in both standard and deluxe digital formats. There is ...

Portugal's greatest garage punk sister duo are back with a brand new song! We first discovered Pega Monstro with the release of Alfarroba back in 2015. "Partir a Loica" is the first song off their upcoming album Casa de Sima , their third overall. Not being a lyrics guy, I'm completely ok with songs done entirely in other languages that I, as an ignorant American, don't understand a single word of. In case you're curious, "Partir a loica" is a common Portuguese phrase that roughly translates to "break all the dishes," and is used to mean shake things up. "Partir a Loica," the song, is pretty much a perfect garage punk song. It's catchy as can be, with crunchy sounding guitars, but yet it still has a pretty melody you'll sing even if you don't understand a single word. And then the bridge comes in just as hard as The White Stripes at their most punk. You can listen to "Partir a Loica" below. Casa de Sima...

An interesting release week. Album of the Week : Artist : Frances Album : Things I've Never Said Quick Description : Compelling singer-songwritery tunes. Why You Should Listen : You like arresting music that surprises you. Overall Thoughts : I went in blind on Frances for the most part – I feel like I heard a song once upon a time, but that’s neither here nor there. This album really surprised me, which is why it’s my pick for album of the week. Haunting is the wrong word, because I feel like there’s a connotation to that idea that goes with a darker tone or a more ethereal take on the music. It’s not traditional folk, but it’s not standard/modern singer-songwriter fare, either. On first listen? It just feels different. And immediate. And essential. It’s an album that didn’t want to be in the background and kept commanding my attention, which doesn’t happen a whole lot in this way. I truly loved this, and I look forward to spending more time with it to see where it...

Photo by Ken Sears Benjamin Booker covering Howlin' Wolf is a complete no brainer. Booker's hyped up delta blues and gravelly voice is perfect for covering the blues legend. Booker's version feels a bit more stripped down than the original, even though it seems to be using the same instrumentation. It could be that Howlin' Wolf's is produced to sound more slick, and Booker's is meant to sound raw. Either way, it's a perfect cover. You can listen to Benjamin Booker's cover of "Spoonful" below. It will be available on the Resistance Radio: The Man in The High Castle Album  compilation, which features modern day artists covering classics. The album will also feature covers by Beck, Sharon van Etten, Angel Olson, The Shins, Karen O, and more, so you know we'll be all over it. The album will be out on April 7. To pre-order it, head over to Amazon . Benjamin Booker will release his new album, Witness , on June 2. Check out his website fo...

Hailing from San Francisco, Inhalt (German for "content") defy the city's hippie reputation and instead offer dark, driving synth music. "Walking on Glass" offers just the slightest hint of the electronic post punk that was all the rage 10-15 years ago, but this is stripped way back. It's a little too nicely produced to truly be called minimalist, but it's right on the line of minimalism. You get this dark, brooding, and foreboding sound, that you can still dance to.  Inhalt's upcoming album, Part Time Punks Sessions, was recorded live in a collaboration with the Part Time Punks radio show out of Los Angeles. It will be available April 14 on Cleopatra Records. You can pre-order your copy on Bandcamp . The video for "Walking on Glass" is below. For more on Inhalt, check out their website  and Bandcamp .

One of the highlights of 2017 has been the discovery of Fuzzystar, led by Andy Thomson of Edinburgh. We've had one song per month from Fuzzystar, and since this is March, here is the third song from the upcoming Telegraphing. The title track, "Telegraphing," is Fuzzystar's most accessible song yet. It's just a perfect little mid to late 90s indie power pop song. Thomsen's droning vocals seem to be the main focus of this particular song. The guitars seem to be taking a bit of a backseat and are there to help lead and support the singing. Vocally, it's a bit of an odd mix of J Mascis and Lou Barlow. Musically, it's like J Mascis wrote a song for Ash, who didn't dare try to pull of the typical Dinosaur Jr batshit guitar solo. Next month we'll finally get to hear the entire album for Telegraphing. It will be out on April 28 via Satellite Sounds. You can listen to the song "Telegraphing" below. For more on Fuzzystar, check them out o...

We try to stay fairly positive over here at If It's Too Loud... and just bring you the best new music that we stumble on. We don't want to do the snarky music critic thing and mock hard working bands trying to make it just because we think we're funny. But every so often a band we used to love releases something so horrible that we're forced to warn you about how bad it is. Once again, that band is Weezer. I used to love love LOVE Weezer. They're the band most people most closely associate with me still to this day. They just released the first song off their upcoming 11th album. That song, "Feels Like Summer," is awful. Just plain awful. They're a band that's been around for 20+ years and they're not even targeting teens and 20-somethings anymore. This sounds like a play for tweens, like they're trying to get on a Disney Channel or Nickelodeon show. It's the kind of song that you see a band on stage playing instruments, but you don...

Photo via Facebook Lillie Mae may look familiar, seeing how she plays in Jack White's live band. The two are continuing to work together, as White is releasing her debut album, Forever and Then Some , on his Third Man Records label. The obvious comparison to Lillie Mae is Margo Price. They're both Americana tinged country singers on Third Man Records and produced by Jack White. On "Over the Hill and Through the Woods," the first single from the upcoming album, Mae defines her sound. The song is a more sparse and stripped down version of the retro country thing, but is somehow just as slick as Margo Price's debut. This next part might sound weird, but just go with me on this: It's more raw but somehow more smooth at the same time. I know that makes no sense, but you'll understand when you listen to the song. It's like if 1950s country had 1980s country production values. Lillie Mae's debut album, Forever and Then Some , will be out on April ...

Photo courtesy of The New Year The New Year has long been one of those bands I keep meaning to get into, but always seem to get distracted. The main appeal to me is the inclusion of the criminally underrated Chris Brokaw on drums, even though I'm more familiar with him on guitar. Plus, add in Matt and Bubba Kadane from Bedhead, and you have the makings of an obscure indie rock supergroup. Luckily for me (and everyone else), The New Year have a new album coming out in April, their first in nine years! The first single off the new album, "Recent History," is this perfect blend of laid back but intense indie rock. It starts off with a long, 1:30 slowly building instrumental, to the point where you start to assume it's an all instrumental song. And then the vocals come in. It's not soft enough to be whispering, and it's a little too much singing to be speaking. If you came of age to the 90s indie scene, you're going to love this. Snow , the new album f...

Slowing down a bit... Album of the Week : Artist : Valerie June Album : The Order of Time Quick Description : Gorgeous folk music. Why You Should Listen : Valerie June is incredibly good and is quickly reaching "criminally underrated" status. Overall Thoughts : I loved her debut album, and it's clear with this new album that she's sticking to a winning formula even while trying a few different things. "Astral Plane" hit a little early and the instrumentation behind the haunting vocals was just so arresting every time it came through. It's a great step forward, perhaps better than her debut, and is absolutely one of my favorite listens of 2017 so far. Recommendation : A must listen, no excuses. Artist : Hurray for the Riff Raff Album : The Navigator Quick Description : A slight shift in sound doesn't change how good an album this is. Why You Should Listen : Hurray for the Riff Raff is a favorite around these parts, and this is a highl...