If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Nathan Oldham Love Crumbs are a folk/rock and indie trio based out of Massachusetts. When working on their latest single, they couldn't quite get the vocals quite right, so they called upon their friend, Corey Laitman of Cloudbelly. That started off the collaborative single, "Vacant Dreams." This new song is a gorgeous and lush song that has elements of straightforward folk/rock mixed with some indie noise that adds more beauty to the song. It's a powerful song with a powerful subject of loving someone struggling with addiction. Every element of this song just accentuates all other elements. It starts off simply and just builds into a soaring, epic masterpiece. Not many folk/rock songs can hit the six plus minute mark and still have you wanting more, but "Vacant Dreams" does just that. Michael Dubuque of Love Crumbs says of his band's new song: "This song is about my brother - about loving and grieving the loss of my relationship with my br...

Since The Dead Milkmen reunited in 2008, their latest single feels like the most classic Dead Milkmen song they've released. "Philadelphia Femdom" is a punk song with a sense of humor. If anything, the song celebrates the dominatrix lifestyle, and mentions that most of the people that seem to decry sex work are the ones who tend to seek out the services. Calling out the hypocrisy of politicians, religious leaders, etc. is a classic Dead Milkmen subject, and "Philadelphia Femdom" fits that perfectly. My favorite classic Dead Milkmen songs are the type that seem silly and fun while being biting social commentary, and this fits in perfectly. You can watch the video for "Philadelphia Femdom" below. Quaker City Quiet Pills is due out June 9 on The Giving Groove, and is available for pre-order here . For more on The Dead Milkmen, check out their website.

Photo by Jessie Cowan They may have just released their debut album almost exactly a year ago, but The Linda Lindas are already back with a new single. If you were thinking they might have burned out on the hype of last year's Growing Up , "Too Many Things" shows the quartet are just getting started. This new single showcases a songwriting talent barely touched in anything you've heard before. "Too Many Things" has just enough of an edge to squeak into punk territory, but there is such a fantastic blend of alt-rock and pop here to keep the song ridiculously fun. It's kind of like a cross between Juliana Hatfield and The Donnas. If you've been fighting hopping on The Linda Lindas bandwagon, it's time to stop resisting. You can watch the video for "Too Many Things" below. The single is out now via Epitaph Records. For more on The Linda Lindas, check out the band's website . Upcoming tour dates are below the video. 5/27 - Atlantic City...

Last summer, I discovered Massachusetts' own Bad Larrys, and wrote about their (at the time) most recent single "Fantasy." Fifteen days later they announced they were breaking up. Turns out they had one more song for us all, and just released it last week. "Skating Upstream" might be one of the greatest final songs of all time. It has the absolute perfect combination of indie rock noise, power pop hooks, and phenomenal harmonies that you don't normally get in the world of indie rock. The music is driving, with fuzzy guitars and a bouncy bass line, but those vocal harmonies are just maddeningly perfect. If you're just discovering Bad Larrys, you're both welcome and I'm sorry. It's gonna hurt discovering a band this fantastic just too late. You can listen to "Skating Upstream" below. For more on Bad Larrys, check them out on Bandcamp and Instagram . Skating Upstream by Bad Larrys

"Space Mountain," the latest single from Kool Keith's return to his Black Elvis persona, is pure vintage Kool Keith. This is the type of song that sounds like it could have been an outtake from the original 1999 Black Elvis/Lost in Space  album. It has that minimalistic but future sounding hip hop sound that is what we all came to love about Kool Keith in the 90's, and what we still love about him now. When a legend like Kool Keith goes back to a previous persona for the first time in over two decades, fans can be both excited and apprehensive. A song like "Space Mountain" shows that we should be ecstatic for this new album. You can listen to "Space Mountain" below. Black Elvis 2 is due out June 16 on Mello Music Group, and is available for pre-order here . For more on Kool Keith, check out the artist on Facebook and Twitter .

This past weekend might have been the craziest of all time for the Boston area, musically speaking. We had Taylor Swift taking over Gillette Stadium (and everyone's social media feeds) for three nights, Janet Jackson in Mansfield, Blink 182 at the Garden, and countless local rock shows happening every single night of the weekend. I assumed I'd have some FOMO at only making it out to one show, but when that show was the outstanding triple bill of The Downhauls, Stars Like Ours, and Swivel, I could not have gone wrong. I'm about to lose all my Boston rock credibility by saying this, but I did not know Swivel at all before they were announced as the opener for The Downhauls' EP release show. Last week I discovered that Carissa Johnson was in the band, and I assumed they were a new project. Turns out they've been around for at least five years and also feature Damone's Noelle LeBlanc, and released an EP back in December that we completely missed. This won't shoc...

Photo by Michelle LoBianco New York's Gorgeous are an experimental rock duo, although their latest single has plenty of pop injected in. (Well, pop as far as experimental music goes...) "Elbow Stress Rash" has this jerky start/stop feeling going for it that makes it at least a little post-punk. The song is punchy and abrasive, but in an almost hypnotic kind of way. If I have to compare it to another artist you may be more familiar with, this song is like a more stripped down Guerilla Toss or Birthday Ass. Gorgeous are making weird music, but it's not so left of center to make it inaccessible. As long as you have a slightly open mind, "Elbow Stress Rash" has plenty for you to love. You can listen to "Elbow Stress Rash" below. Sapsucker is due out June 2 on Sad Cactus Records, and is available for pre-order over at Bandcamp . For more on Gorgeous, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram . Sapsucker by Gorgeous

Bloodshot Records seemed to have imploded back in 2019, and all was quiet at the label until last year when they seemed to be up to something. Earlier this year, they announced they had resigned some previous artists including Lydia Loveless and Jason Hawk Harris. That was fantastic news by itself, but now the pair have released a cover of Rilo Kiley's fantastic "Portions for Foxes." Harris' Love & the Dark was a favorite album of 2019, and Loveless is one of my favorite current artists. Considering "Portions for Foxes" is one of my favorite songs of this century, and I'm starting to wonder if this was made for me personally. Loveless and Harris just nail this cover. It's a spot on version of a brilliant song. Maybe it's a bit more rock than Rilo Kiley's cover, but not by much. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go daydream about Lydia Loveless and Jason Hawk Harris releasing an album filled with nothing but my favorite songs. You ca...

Photo by Bec Parsons As much as I'm enjoying the new song from Genesis Owusu, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. The Ghanian-Australian artist has released "Leaving the Light," which is a pop song... I think? The song is as intense as it is danceable, but just calling it pop doesn't sit right with me. There are some strong elements of drum and bass here, along with some punk, hip hop, rock, and psychedelia. I hesitate to even call this song fun, because it feels like there is too strong of a darkness lurking beneath the surface to be fun, even though it sounds like the best dance song you've heard in years. "Leaving the Light" is filled with so many conflicting elements that it just has to work. You can watch the video for "Leaving the Light" below. Struggler is due out August 18 via Ourness/AWAL. For more on Genesis Owusu, check out the artist's website . Upcoming tour dates are below the video. 5/20 Coffs Harbour, AUS - Storyland ...

Boston's Noble Dust are a folk band, although that description doesn't quite match their music. Their latest single, "A Picture for a Frame," has all of the elements of folk music, but with it's delicate strings and horns, it adds in more than a little bit of jazz and orchestral music. "A Picture for a Frame" is filled with lush vocals that match the instrumentation perfectly. Noble Dust have crafted an intricate song that is at times quiet and mellow and more raucous at others, while maintaining the same beauty throughout. This is definitely a band to keep a close eye on.  You can listen to "A Picture for a Frame" below. The album  A Picture for a Frame , which was inspired by World War II era letters between guitarist/singer Emily Cunningham's gtandfather while he was stationed in the South Pacific and her grandmother back home in Roxbury, MA, is due out August 25. For more on Noble Dust, check out the band's website .

Photo by Edwin Cubillos Landowner are one of those bands I know by name, but I've never actually listened to them. The western Massachusetts band always seems to be playing with bands I like, and I mean to check them out, but I never quite get to it. If you're like me, their new single will have you wanting to dive straight into their back catalog. "Witch Museum" is this jerky and oddly intense indie rocker that is referred to as "abrasively clean minimalist punk" in their press release. It's a song that explores Massachusetts' dark history by mentioning multiple standard school field trip favorites. It is abrasive and aggressive, but there is an unexpected beauty to this song. My only regret with hearing a song like "Witch Museum" is realizing I could have been listening to Landowner for years before this. You can listen to "Witch Museum" below. Escape the Compound is due out July 21 on Born Yesterday Records, and is available to...

We loved the first two singles from Perfectly Lethal, comparing them to Superchunk and Cheap Trick. The Boston quartet are back with a new single, "Pissing in the Wind." The new single still has a huge, classic power pop song, but it's delving a bit more into the classic indie rock side of things. The song just starts with crunching guitars and goes into some killer harmonies and a terrifically catchy chorus. This one is reminding me more of bands like Guided By Voices and Superdrag. This one is going to appeal to fans of power pop and indie rock, especially if you have a bit of nostalgia for the mid 90's. You can listen to "Pissing in the Wind" below. The song will be included on an upcoming EP. For more on Perfectly Lethal, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram . If you're in the Boston area, they're playing Faces Brewing Co. in Malden on Monday, May 22 with Dead Bars and Hell Beach. You can find more information on that show here . Pissing...

Photo by Pooneh Ghana The latest from Nashville's  Snõõper  isn 't going to be for everyone, and that's ok. "Fitness" is probably too fast and too noisy of a song. It's like noise rock meets hyper pop, and it's just a frantic mess of a song. But, that being said, it's a glorious mess of a song. It reminds me of a hyped up version of bands like Be Your Own Pet or Ex Models. For those of us that appreciate this kind of thing, "Fitness" is an absolute joy in the form of a ninety second song. It's fun and will make you want to move, even if it's most likely too fast to do anything resembling a dance to. Vocalist Blair Tramel says of the band's new song: “‘Fitness’ was written just for fun without much thought, which is exactly the way I think working out should be. This song is about competition, doing things for the validation of others, and how ridiculous that can be. Before our first show, I made a paper mache weight to use during ...

Photo by Peter McManus Massachusetts has seen an influx in bands describing themselves as grunge lately, and one of our favorites has been The Rupert Selection. They've been adding some psychedelia into their neo-grunge sound, which ends up working perfectly. Their latest single, "I Saw God," is a loud, heavy, and trippy blast of a song. While the grunge label gets overused lately and is slapped on any song inspired by the 90's, "I Saw God" has that actual grunge sound of an extremely heavy song with fuzzed out guitars. Plus, it's as catchy as it is heavy. There are even some metal influences with The Rupert Selection (which most great grunge had), giving the song a Motorhead meets Mudhoney sound. Guitarist and vocalist Reilly Somach says of the new song: “I like the idea of keeping the interpretation of this one as vague and open-ended as possible. Whatever the listener perceives as being God within the song, that’s what it is.” You can watch the video ...

At its very best, music can foster friendships and a true community. That was the case Tuesday night, for a quadruple bill of three Worcester musicians (Matt Charette, Michael Kane, and Christian Marrone) playing with Columbus, OH's Micah Schnabel. All four musicians have played together before and are all friends, and it was no secret that it was a show put together at Hotel Vernon to give Schnabel a place to play and make some cash on his way through. Virtually everyone in attendance knew at least one of the musician playing, and the community was truly showcased. Each of the local musicians played shorter sets to give more time to Micah Schnabel. Matt Charette played five songs, mostly from his excellent new album Lo-Fi High Hopes. I've been trying to get out to see him for months now, and he did not disappoint. He has a certain working class punk rock infused take on folk rock with a heavy emphasis on rock that came through perfectly even playing solo acoustic. His songs ar...