If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Lea Thomas Album : Cosmos Forever Quick Thoughts : The only flaw that exists in this album, in my opinion, is that it's too short. I don't know Lea Thomas's music at all, but this is the sort of slowcore folk stuff that scratches an extremely particular itch for me. While I highlight two great songs here, the whole seven track album is just stellar from beginning to end, and is quickly becoming a recent favorite. A mandatory listen this week. Songs of Note : "We Must Be In Love," "Bauhinia" Artist : Circus Trees Album : This makes me sad, and I miss you Quick Thoughts : Circus Trees is a sibling band from Massachusetts and this latest record is a massive step forward in their activity as a band. This feels raw and honest without going overboard, and the production hits well above its weight - "Alone" and "Negative Feedback" in particular kill it. So many songs on this absolutely blew my mind, and I can't w...

Photo by Brent Broza When a punk frontman has a side project, it's typically a country or acoustic solo project that kinda sorta fits in with their regular sound. That's not the case with Pennywise's Jim Lindberg. His side project, The Black Pacific, is going to appeal to fans of Pennywise. Their latest single, "I Think I'm Paranoid" is a straight up punk song that doesn't sound like Lindberg's main band, while still sharing enough in common that his longstanding fans are going to dig this one. It's a little more hardcore, a little more melodic, and a little more rock and roll. You might not realize it's a side project from the singer of Pennywise, but once you know that it makes perfect sense. Jim Lindberg says of The Black Pacific: “I’ve been writing songs for Pennywise and various projects for many years, and I’ve amassed a catalog of hundreds of demos, literally boxes of cassette tapes from the last few decades.  Some of the songs weren’t r...