If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Evan Bowles Considering Milliseconds includes Joe Easley and Eric Axelson of The Dismemberment Plan, and their debut album was produced by J Robbins, you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. Their latest single, "Fallingwater," is still a punk track, albeit a grown up one. It still has the attitude of punk, but in an older, more chilled out way. It even has some vocal harmonies that would make The Beach Boys jealous. According to the Axelson, Milliseconds were "... tapping into Husker Du and The Kinks when writing this," and that sums up the song much better than I could. It's an upbeat artsy punk song that is at the highest end possible for melody in the genre. Eric Axelson says of his band's new single: "On the third or fourth date with my now wife, she told me about her fantasy to head to the airport some Friday after work, buy a ticket for Paris, and spend a weekend exploring, eating great food, drinking wine, flying back for work Mond...

The Van Pelt are one of those bands I remember from my college radio years, but mostly more in name than anything else. But, that's the way it seems to be with legendary indie rock bands. The New York City band are set to release their first new album in twenty six years, and there's a new single we can check out from that album. "Image of Health" is just pure post-rock and post-hardcore. I seem to remember The Van Pelt getting lumped in with a lot of late 90's emo bands, but "Image of Health" is much more along the lines of Mogwai and Slint than The Promise Ring. This is spoken word over some of the most lovely indie guitar rock you've heard in years, and it sounds like it could have come straight off 1997's Sultans of Sentiment. It may be a little slower and more mellow than The Van Pelt were in their heyday, but not by much. Frontman Chris Leo says of his band's new music: "I'm a middle-aged man now. Straightforward, cutting to th...

Seattle's Calm Collapse is an indie rock supergroup featuring members of Roadside Monument Patrol, Traindodge, and Medicine Bows. The band's new single, "Welfare Tour," is a perfect example of music that is both heavy and melodic. It's not quite metal heavy, but at the very least it's metal adjacent. Typically when a song is described as both heavy and melodic, it's a code that it's a watered down version of hard rock. That's not the case with Calm Collapse. "Welfare Tour" is a pounding, heavy rock song that just happens to also include some melody. This is making me think of bands like Helmet or Pelican. You can listen to "Welfare Tour" below. Mirrored Nature is due out November 25 on Spartan Records, and can be pre-ordered here . For more on Calm Collapse, check out the band on Facebook and Twitter .

For his first album in seven years, Rocky Votolato has written a concept album with each song written for a member of his family. The album took on a deeper meaning after losing his child in a car accident in December 2021. The latest single from that album, "Little Black Diamond," is a catchy indie folk song. It's bordering on the mainstream side of indie folk and reminds me of Mary Lou Lord or a more rootsy version of Elliott Smith. The song has an intensely intimate feel, but not in the way that you're overhearing someone's secrets. Instead, "Little Black Diamond" has a warmth to it, much more like you've been invited in as a trusted compatriot.  You can listen to "Little Black Diamond" below. Wild Roots is due out September 9 on Spartan Records in the US and Thirty Something Records in Europe. The album can be pre-ordered here . For more on Rocky Votolato, check out the artist's website .

Photo via Facebook Mountain Time is a project of Chris Simpson of Mineral and The Gloria Record. As with many solo-ish projects, this one goes a little folkier than Simpson's other projects. "Meet the Kid" is the latest single, and it's solidly a folk rock song. There isn't much of Mineral's emo sound on this one. "Meet the Kid" is a little ramblin', but it rocks just a little too hard to truly be that kind of folk song. It's a gorgeous, lush, and heartfelt song that includes some interesting little flourishes you don't normally get in the world of folk rock or even indie folk.  You can listen to "Meet the Kid" below. The song is available as a single via Spartan Records with a full length coming in 2023. For more on Mountain Time, check out the artist's website .

Rip Room's previous single combined a punch of punk sounds into one new but familiar cohesive punk sound, and their new one continues that, but with different sounds. "Worth Repeating" sounds like early, noisier The Dismemberment Plan with the bass groove of Geffen-era Sonic Youth, the intensity and out of control feeling of Rites of Spring, and the thrash of Bay area metal. "Worth Repeating" is an intense song that is going to sound gloriously familiar to some of us while still plowing straight at you at near top speed. This is intense, disjointed punk that is still an enjoyable listen. John Reed (vocals/guitar) says of the band's new song and video: "Shot in the midst of the pandemic, we found ourselves in a clandestine location with a rough plan and more than a few worries. The song is about the world falling apart, so it felt right to shoot in the woods — ominous and sinister, but maybe the safest place to be. By the end of a long evening, our direc...

San Francisco's Rip Room make art punk that just straight up rocks. The band's new single, "Complication," is an amalgam of a bunch of your favorite classic punk sounds and bands. There's the post punk of Gang of Four, the buzzing guitars of Dead Kennedys, the bouncy New Wave goes almost pop of Talking Heads and B-52s, and even some of the noise of Sonic Youth. It's this wonderfully odd mesh of sounds that works great together into a song that is as furious as it is pop adjacent. It sounds like punk made for adults who are still angry at the world but don't have the energy to be mad all the time. Vocalist/guitarist John Reed says of the new song: “'Complication' is about the failure of society to do meaningful things, and the lack of imagination that's doomed humanity to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Why isn't there equitable treatment of all people? Why is there still war? Why can't the richest country in the history of the w...

Photo by Will Clarke Norfolk, VA's Demons are a lot heavier than the music we typically bring you here at If It's Too Loud..., but sometimes a song just connects with us. "Play Acting Virtue" is a combination of metal and punk. It's a fast and loud song that just plows straight through its three minute plus length. As soon as the opening feedback starts blaring, and the quiet but tense guitar starts playing, you're just waiting for the song to burst open. And it does. "Play Acting Virtue" is like Converge for people who want it to be a little more punk. It's merging hardcore with louder indie acts like Metz. Zach Gehring (vocals/guitar) says of the new song: "This song was one of the earlier ones written for Privation. I was listening to a lot of Converge, and I still hear the influence applied through our filter. The music was written on an acoustic. It was a block headed riff that came alive when Drew built the drum part. He achieved the p...

Photo by Jake Gravbot You may not know Assertion yet, but you'll know William Goldsmith. It's the new project from the Sunny Day Real Estate founding member and ex-Foo Fighter. If you're a fan of either of Goldsmith's other bands, chances are you're going to like Assertion. Their first single, "Supervised Suffering" (which marks Goldsmith's return to music after taking ten years off), has the heartfelt proto-emo sensibilities of Sunny Day Real Estate and the stadium ready anthem feel of Foo Fighters. It's a huge sound that avoids the middle ground that much mainstream rock dips into while still having a sound that can appeal to people that still listen to actual radio, as well as us music elitists.  William Goldsmith says of the new project:  "A decade-long journey that started out walking away from music has led me right back to it and the very reason I started - but with a whole new appreciation and respect for it. I feel extremely fortunate...

I missed the original run of Giants Chair from 1993 to 1997. For those four years, the band from Kansas City played with bands like The Dismemberment Plan and Jimmy Eat World and have been highly influential in the world of emo. Now, twenty two years later they're back with a new song and an upcoming album.  "Kids Running" is emo, but it's not as emo as you think it might be. The roots of emo are there, but the song just straight up rocks much harder than any emo you might have heard before. It's not in the vein of punk or metal influences emo: This is just a straight up rocker with some emo tinge.  Singer/guitarist Scott Hobart describes the band's reunion and new material: "I didn’t want to write or sing or yell about growing old - as frustrating as it can be, so, at first, I think I was going down the old safe road of lyrical crypticism - but, ultimately, I found it hard to be passionate in sheer abstraction. I really felt like I wanted to be m...