If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook I've been firmly on team Jello for decades now, and any new music we get from him is a treasure. He's one of the very few aging punk idols that hasn't mellowed in either politics or the ferocity of his music. While many others seem to get more and more embarrassing as their politics drift further and further to the other side, Jello seems to be getting more and more radical with age. Take his newest single with The Guantanamo School of Medicine. "WE CREATED PUTIN" is pretty blatant and unapologetic in its subject matter (Spoiler alert: Jello isn't a fan of Trump), and musically it's as subtle as a shotgun blast to the gut. If you were ever a Dead Kennedys or Jello Biafra fan in your youth and haven't started listening to stadium country and sharing memes about the kids these days, you're going to love what Jello is still up to. Do us all a favor and check this song out. You can watch the video for "WE CREATED PUTIN...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Oh, the mid 1990's. It was the glory days of the compilation album, where labels would just throw a bunch of bands on a cd, knowing that as long as you liked two or three of the bands, you'd but the entire album since there was no way you'd ever have any other way to get a copy of the exclusive songs. One of their favorite ways to put one of these together was a tribute album. You'd get a bunch of bands that would usually never be associated together, often covering an artist you'd never expect.  One of these tribute albums was Twisted Willie , which is a mostly alternative tribute to Willie Nelson. Including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings ...

Al Jourgensen has put together roughly a thousand bands in his multi-decade career, so what's one more? His newest is Surgical Meth Machine. Surgical Meth Machine combines the heavy industrial that Jourgensen is best known for, but also includes a lot more electronic elements than usual. The first song released is "I Don't Wanna," which might be the biggest clusterfuck of noise that will be released in 2016. With industrial beats, squelching guitars, and pure electronic noise, it sounds like maybe three songs being blasted all together, but with Jourgensen involved, that's exactly what you want it to sound like. Plus, the song features vocals from Jourgensen's Lard and Revolting Cocks bandmate Jello Biafra for an adult level temper tantrum. Surgical Meth Machine's debut album is due out April 15. You can watch the video for "I Don't Wanna" below. For more information, check out Al Jourgensen's website .

An interesting week overall. Let the folktacular begin! Rhett Miller - The Traveler : Rhett Miller of The Old 97s teams up with Decemberists side project Black Prairie for what is a really fun, solid rootsy album. Collaborations can always be hit or miss when it comes to situations like this, and what I like most about this specific album is that you can absolutely hear Miller's influence and Black Prairie's influence meshing throughout. The instrumentation we'd expect remains the same, Rhett Miller's voice doesn't seem out of place, and it doesn't sound too much like either side. A really well-done album, and easily the best release of the week. Della Mae - Della Mae : Della Mae's third album is a continuation of their interesting take on Americana music. I'm not sure why I'm always surprised when I enjoy their music - it might be that I confuse them with similarly-named acts or that their sound doesn't stand out when you initially hear...