If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Gorillaz Album : Cracker Island Quick Thoughts : Gorillaz struck so big early that, today, people (in the United States, at least) probably know Damon Albarn from Gorillaz more than Blur. If I'm being honest, I haven't found the last decade or so of Gorillaz output to be all that compelling, but Cracker Island feels surprisingly fresh in a time where it's becoming progressively more difficult to do so. The template hasn't changed all that much, but the title track sets a tone for an album we've been waiting years for. Make time. Songs of Note : "Cracker Island," "Oil," "Skinny Ape" Artist : Summer Flake Album : One Less Thing Quick Thoughts : In a week without a ton of highlights, it's great when an indie album comes out of nowhere to impress, and the indie rock stylings of Summer Flake really did the trick for me this week. I knew it was something special early, but when a song like "Barnicle Bill" co...

Photo by Holger Nitschke "Heaving," the latest single from Berlin's Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, is an interesting mixture of sounds that might not seem like the best matches, but end up working out perfectly. The new song leans heavily into a New Wave and industrial sound. It's a beautiful but intense version that sounds very Depeche Mode to me. But "Heaving" feels more modern than 80's and early 90's New Wave, and has that alternative folk/rock/pop sound we love from artists like Lucy Dacus and The Beths. As dark as "Heaving" might sound, it does have more than a bit of a light and pop side. Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys have created this interesting sonic delight that embraces the past while moving towards the future. You can watch the video for "Heaving" below. Heaving , the album, is due out April 7 on Unique Records, and can be pre-ordered here . For more on Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, check out the artist's w...

Seattle's KILL ME keep in the musical tradition of their city while moving it forward. The duo's new single, "The Skin Left Behind," leaves grunge far behind and instead moves into a groove heavy version of hard alt-rock and even slightly into metal. As aggressive as the song is in parts, there is a surprising element of pop hooks within the song. It's reminding me a little of a combination of Queens of the Stone Age and Nirvana. "The Skin Left Behind" is a song that is heavy on the fuzz and the low end while dancing along the edge of being radio friendly. You can listen to "The Skin Left Behind" below. KILL ME's self-titled album is due out June 15, and can be pre-ordered here . For more on the band, check out their website . The Skin Left Behind by KILL ME

Photo by Chantal Anderson Fruit Bats (aka Eric D. Johnson) continue to make some of the most captivating mainstream neo-folk out in the world today. Their latest single, "It All Comes Back," is this warm folk/rock song that stands firmly in the world of the mainstream while having just enough of an almost experimental sound to keep things interesting. As with anything Johnson is involved with, "It All Comes Back" is a stunningly lovely track. It's the kind of song that could be good but middle of the road in another artist's hands, but Johnson just has this knack for being irresistible and elevating his songs to an entirely new level. You can listen to "It All Comes Back" below. A River Running to Your Heart is due out April 14 on Merge Records. The album can be pre-ordered here . For more on Fruit Bats, check out the artist's website . Upcoming tour dates are below the song. 3/16-17 –  Austin, TX  – SXSW 4/12 –  Indianapolis, IN  – Hi-Fi 4/13 ...

Talib Kweli is an absolutely legendary MC, widely considered to be one of the best around. He's one of those artists I know I need to get more into, especially after seeing him do a few songs with The Soul Rebels back in March. Since I'm trying to get to The Middle East as much as possible before it most likely closes at the end of the year, and STL GLD were opening, the show last week became a must see. STL GLD have to be a hard opening act to follow. Live bands always have an extra energy to them, and live they have more than a little bit of a punk and metal edge to them. Not that songs like "Wild Style" or "Resisting" have any rap rock in them, but there is an extra swagger to them live. Opening with "Shimmer," possibly their biggest song to date with Darlingside off last year's excellent Rock Boyega , STL GLD pulled out some absolute favorites like "The New Normal Pt. 1." Part of the appeal of their live show is the duality of Moe...

Photo by Zachary Chick Wednesday are quickly becoming a favorite here, and their latest single shows exactly why. "Bath County" is a glorious indie rock song in its most perfect form. It's a perfect loud/quiet/loud song filled with some of the best fuzzed out guitars this century. It's just oozing with mid-90's alt-rock joy, and Karly Hartzman's vocals have this fabulous 90's slacker with some alt-country twang peeking through. They even solidify their Drive-By Truckers connection on "Bath County" with the line "On the way home play Drive-By Truckers songs real loud." Wednesday are the type of band I'm starting to wonder if they truly exist or if my brain just made them up since they hit so many of my personal musical sweet spots. You can watch the video for "Bath County" below. Rat Saw God  is due out April 7 on Dead Oceans and can be pre-ordered here . For more on Wednesday, check out the band's website .

Libby Rodenbough is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Durham, NC. She's a member of Mipso and also a solo musician. Her most recent solo single, "Easier to Run," definitely fits into the folk/Americana category despite not quite fitting into that genre. "Easier to Run" has all of the qualifications of being a folk song. It's a relaxed song using acoustic folk instruments, and it's not as if Rodenbough is making an experimental song with this one. It's pretty straightforward, but it just doesn't exactly fit into any of the existing folk categories. "Easier to Run" just does its own thing, in a lovely and appealing kind of way. Libby Rodenbough says of her upcoming album: “I wrote most of these songs in the period where my mom was very sick and immediately after she passed away, but I wouldn’t say they’re grief songs. Mostly they’re about trying to keep the faith—believing life can be new and even better." You can liste...

Photo by Bree Fish Bella White has been experimenting with different shades of Americana and roots music, and expanding on her sound since 2020's outstanding Just Like Leaving. Her latest single, "Break My Heart," is pure country. This is the kind of classic country sound that you heard back in the 80's and 90's. It may have some slight pop leanings, but White is hardly pop country on this one. It's an upbeat sounding song that's about heartbreak (obviously, based on the title). White just has such a natural twang to her voice that a song like "Break My Heart" might be the perfect style for her.  Bella White says of the new song: "Out of all of the songs I’ve written, “Break My Heart” is probably the most explicitly about getting dumped. I wrote it with no intention of ever sharing it. I didn’t even feel any particular emotional attachment to it like I do with my other songs, because it was such an isolated experience, zooming in on one spec...

Photo courtesy Sunshine Riot A lot of music gets labeled grunge these days, and most of it is just 90's influenced alt-rock and not actual grunge. Boston's Sunshine Riot is actually grunge, or at least alt-grunge. Their new single, "So It Comes," has that growl mixed with fuzzy guitars that is truly required to be grunge. There is just a certain style of guitar fuzz required, and they nail it. Plus, Jonny Orton has more than a little of Kurt Cobain's snarl in his vocals. "So It Comes" is a little poppier than a lot of 90's grunge, but it does include some psychedelic elements which makes it more along the lines of The Gits or Mother Love Bone. This is the kind of song that is going to elicit some nostalgia even though it's brand new. Jonny Orton says of the new song: "It's a song about the human condition, and the speed with which a person can change from one mood to the next. There is this wonderful Buddhist saying that I heard recently...

Photo by Eric Rayburn Yarn wrote their latest single back in 2019, but there's no better time to release a song called "Cocaine Bear" than on the release date of a much anticipated film called Cocaine Bear. Yarn's song recounts the story of Cocaine Bear, aka Pablo Escobear, who was found dead after ingesting cocaine that was dumped from a plane near the Georgia/Tennessee border back in the 1980's. Despite being a novelty song, "Cocaine Bear" works perfectly by how seriously Yarn take the subject matter. It's done in the style of vintage 70's country, and, if you're not paying that much attention to the lyrics, you'd just enjoy it based on it being a killer country ballad. You can listen to "Cocaine Bear" below. For more on Yarn, check out the band's website .

Photo by Nat Cherry LaToya Kent and RA Washington are part of Mourning [A] BLKstar (an ensemble out of Cleveland) and have formed a new project, Me:You. "Crawl on yer belly," the new single from Me:You, is hard to describe. It's a buzzing swirl of noise that is like a crossover of Peaches and hip hop. It's dissonant and most certainly not for the more mainstream listeners out there, but these is something almost accessible in "Crawl on yer belly." But just barely.  LaToya Kent and RA Washington say of their new project and upcoming album: " Field Tapes in the Trash is a testament of its maker's experience of analog, digital, grandma’s Saturday morning records spinning and leather Cadillac back seats stuck to the thighs. Angst that never let go amidst a world against brown skin coupled with praise of its musings and rapture. "See, when you feel it all, everything shows up in the story. The narrative wild and pulsing with its own blood. The stag...

It's been a long, long time since we've heard from ska lifers Fishbone . It's been six years since we had a new song from them, but Fishbone just released a new song, and their first with Charlie Down in nearly thirty years! "All We Have is Now" might be a bit more mellow than classics like "Bonin' in the Boneyard" and "Party at Ground Zero," but aren't we all these days? This new song seems to be a bit more traditional ska than ska-punk or ska-core. It's a fun and positive single, and a wonderful return for one of the most influential bands in ska. You can watch the video for "All We Have is Now" below. The song is part of the Bottle Music for Broken People compilation available now on Bottles to the Ground. You can find the compilation here . For more on Fishbone check out the band on Facebook and Instagram .

There's nothing quite like discovering a band just as they're breaking up. Denver's FAIM have announced that they're upcoming album will be their last, and they've released another single off of it. We don't normally cover a lot of hardcore, but something about "Opus" just works. FAIM's latest is heavy and full of screaming vocals, but somehow it isn't quite as abrasive as hardcore normally is. There's just something about "Opus" that is sucking me in. I think there's just enough of a sense of melody here to soften the blow just enough. And when I say there's just enough melody, I mean barely any sense of melody. This is definitely a hardcore song, and not a melodic hardcore song. You can listen to "Opus" below. Your Life and Nothing Else is due out March 3 on Safe Inside Records. The album can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp . For more on FAIM, check out the band's website . Your Life and Nothing Else by FAI...

Photo by Kaye Song London's deathcrash have released a new single perfect for fans of slowcore, and a possible jumping on point for those who don't know the genre. "Duffy's" is almost a folk song for a good portion of its four minute length. Or, at least, it could easily get played at the Newport Folk Festival these days. It's an almost painfully quiet song that just plods along at its own pace, kind of like a Slint song, but even slower. As it is a slowcore song, it eventually does get louder towards the end and bursts into a glorious finale of contained (and lovely) noise. Somehow this is the kid of song that is both cold and warm at the same time. Bassist Patrick Fitzgerald says of the new song: “It alternates between very sparse slowcore sections and more open, catchy melodies and riffs. It’s not in a rush, but it does give in to something, a lightness maybe." You can watch the video for "Duffy's" below. Less is due March 17 on untitled ...

Taylor Ashton is a Canadian born musician currently living in Brooklyn. For his upcoming covers EP, he recruited his wife for a duet of Cyndi Lauper's iconic "Time After Time." Considering his wife is Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive, you can't go wrong. Their version of the song is a stripped down version of the song accompanied with guitar, piano, and saxophone. "Time After Time" is just one of those songs that you simply can't go wrong with. It's the rare pop song beloved by virtually everyone, and Taylor Ashton and Rachael Price do Cyndi Lauper proud. You don't want to skip this one. Taylor Ashton says of his cover of "Time After Time": “Rachael and I generally keep our musical lives separate, but we’ve been asked to sing together at a few friends’ weddings and 'Time After Time' is a song we love to pull out in that context. I feel like I could live an entire lifetime just inside the phrase 'suitcase of memories.'” ...

Photo by Kelly Davidson The latest from Boston's Girl with a Hawk is a stunning power pop ballad that's beauty hides a heartbreaking tale. "Same Stars" is about singer Linda Viens' brother, who was sentenced to a Connecticut prison for eleven years for holding up a convenience store with a toy gun while suffering from heroin addiction, and how much it affected their family. The song is filled with fuzzy and droning guitars, and has a little bit of a Wilco meets The Velvet Underground sound. You can still feel the pain in Viens' voice all of these years later.  "Same Stars" is a powerful piece of art that is still uplifting in spite of the pain it reflects. Linda Viens says of the new song: “There are times, lucky times, when songs come through the ether to the writer fully formed. ‘Same Stars’ is one of those songs. In the middle of the night as I tossed and turned, feeling my brother’s body and mind and spirit simultaneously  tossing and turning and...

I know I've heard "Between Two Trees," the latest single from Lady Lamb, before. I'm not sure if I've heard it at live shows, or if it was on an album I bought years ago on Bandcamp, but I know this one. According to a Facebook post announcing the new song, Aly Spaltro comments that the song "... has been looking for its place for a very long time." I'm glad it found it's place. "Between Two Trees" melds pre- Ripely Pine Lady Lamb with her more recent music. It's a simple (but intense) folk song with accompanying strings that truly flesh it out. The song shows an artist looking back into her past and ahead into her future at the same time. There may be a slight darkness to "Between Two Trees," but it's a gorgeous song you won't be able to resist. You can listen to "Between Two Trees" below. In that same Facebook post, Lady Lamb says there is more coming. For now, check out the artist's website for mor...

If you've been a fan of David Wax Museum for a while, you'll know that there's an almost mythical unreleased album that they've been waiting to release until they felt they could fully tour behind it. Ok, it's not really mythical since they've talked about it a bunch, but we've been waiting for years to hear this album. The great news is that it's finally getting released. And, after hearing the first single off of this album, it's going to be great. "Luanne" is almost a thowback to when I first discovered David Wax Museum. It's a giant, celebratory song rooted in traditional folk while being more of a modern neo-folk song. Lately, they've been a little more quiet and even experimental. "Luanne" is a back to roots song that is just begging to be played at large outdoor shows this summer. If this is just the first taste of the album, we're thrilled we only have three more months to hear the rest! You can listen to ...

Photo by Frances Carter Tiny Ruins, the musical project of New Zealand's Hollie Fullbrook, is back with a new single, "Dorothy Bay." The band's upcoming album, Ceremony, is comprised of songs making up chapters of a saga set on Tamaki Makaaurau's Manukau Harbor. "Dorothy Harbor" mixes Fullbrook's Neil Young influence with the current crop of indie rock meets indie pop musicians coming out of New Zealand and Australia these days. It's the kind of song that feels like floating, with fuzzy guitars combining with Fullbrook's vocals to create something beautiful and more than a little melancholy. As downbeat as the song can be, there is a strong bassline that adds an unexpected groove to it. This is a fascinating and captivating new single that's going to have you dying to hear the rest of the album.  You can watch the video for "Dorothy Bay" below. Ceremony is due out April 28 on Ba Da Bing. The album can be pre-ordered here . For m...

Photo by Tory Corless In a very short time, it was announced that Boston would be virtually without rehearsal spaces for musicians. To say that a major American city that has long prided itself on being a place for musicians to thrive to suddenly be without rehearsal spaces is disappointing is a gigantic understatement. John Shakespear recently came back to Boston from Nashville and has released a new single about that. "Sound Museum," named after the long term Allston rehearsal space that is scheduled to close next month, sees Shakespear switching to a more indie pop sound than the folk/Americana of 2019's Spend Your Youth. It's an ode to Boston's DIY communities which are becoming more vital as the city's more traditional musical outlets get more limited seemingly every day. It's taking soul crushing news and finding something to celebrate, and we could really use that these days. John Shakespear says of the Sound Museum: “It was in those spaces, and in ...

Artist : Hansan Album : Blod eller bläck Quick Thoughts : We loved Hansan's debut record a few years back, and getting a new album from the duo of Sofia Talvik and David Floer is a very nice and welcome surprise. Blod eller bläck , translated as (I believe) "blood or ink," is as dark and mysterious as you might imagine. It's also as gorgeous as their debut and feels a little more stable and present, if that makes sense. I loved this, I'm glad it's in the world, I'm glad we got another album, make some time for it. Songs of Note : "Ett steg fram och tva tillbaks," "Om vi inte" Artist : Screaming Females Album : Desire Pathways Quick Thoughts : Can someone please tell me why Screaming Females aren't the biggest band in the universe? Screaming Females have been awesome for a while, but this album takes it to another level. Every song is a banger, and they're somehow leveling up with Desire Pathways in a way I didn't se...

The latest single from Swedish duo Molosser Crude is more of the heavy blues/stoner rock we discovered with "Twin Moons" back in January, but "At My Feet (Hounds of Hell)" has a bit of a different sound. This new song might be even heavier, and is a mix of the original metal of Black Sabbath, jazz, and noise rock. Itb was recorded live in one take, and it's an absolute beast of a song. "At My Feet (Hounds of Hell)" is a dark, menacing song that makes you want to groove as hard as you can headbang to it. You're going to want to crank this one up and give it as many listens as you can handle. Drummer/vocalist Tess says of the new song: “I really don’t like talking too much about my lyrics. That might stop people from finding things I didn’t know were there, and that would be a pity. When it comes to ‘At My Feet’, though, I can tell you that it’s about facing the dark side rather than turning a blind eye to it. It’s when we pretend that the dark stuff...