If It's Too Loud...

Just when I think I can't possibly like Scrunchies (the Minnesota band made up of members of Baby Guts, Kitten Forever, and Bruise Violet), they go and release a song like "Parallel." I'll let vocalist/guitarist Laura Larson explain how the song came together: "We wanted 'Parallel' to be like 'Squirrel Song' by Shellac, and have these jarring, uneven measures to the verses. I was also very interested in having Danielle do this Kim Gordon-esque deadpan call-and-response vocal delivery in the bridge, almost as a juxtaposition to the song's loose theme of both self-imposed and external hope + idealism vs turbulence + obstruction of being a woman making art during late stage capitalism." Besides being inspired by Shellac and Kim Gordon, I'm getting some major early Sleater-Kinney vibes from this one. It doesn't quite have the aggression of some of their other recent singles, but when a song is going to be this straight up great no one...

Photo by Nanne Sorvold Scrunchies (the Minneapolis supergroup of sorts featuring Laura Larson of Baby Guts and Danielle Cusack of Kitten Forever and Bruise Violet) have just released a new single off their upcoming album. While "No Home Planet" reminded me of bands like Green River and Tad, "Absolute Maximum" sounds more like Nirvana (particularly "Stay Away") if they had spent more time in Olympia than Seattle. This is a huge rock song that combines the best of both grunge and riot grrrl. Every so often a song comes around that you wonder if it's been made especially for you. "Absolute Maximum" is one of those for me. You can watch the video for "Absolute Maximum" below. Feral Coast is due out April 1 on Dirtap Records and State Champion Records (for cassette). You can pre-order a copy here . For more on Scrunchies, check out the band's Bandcamp and Instagram .

At one point it seemed like we were bringing you new music from Minneapolis every other day, but it's been a while since a Minneapolis band came to our attention. Maybe they were just saving up to bring us Scrunchies. Scrunchies are a Twin Citied supergroup that was founded by Laura Larson of Kitten Forever (one of my personal favorites!) and Danielle Cusack of Bruise Violet. The two met from appreciation of each other's bands and through playing together in a Buzzcocks cover band called Buzzcunts, which also featured Clara Sayler of Babes in Toyland. In 2019 bassist Matt Catore of Condominiums joined to flesh out their current line up. The band's new single, "No Home Planet," perfectly nails a punk sweet spot for me. It's fast and loud and brash, but also has this unmistakable catchiness to it. It's rare to find punk this heavy that's still fun, but Scrunchies pull it off expertly. There's also the fuzz of early Seattle grunge. (I've oddly bee...