If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Frances Carter Recorded during the sessions for last year's phenomenal Expert in a Dying Field , "Watching the Credits" was left off that album, but luckily The Beths have decided to release the song as a standalone single. "Watching the Credits" is an indie rock power pop song that barrels along for it's three minute run time. The song is about frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes' habit of learning about movies without watching them. What's phenomenal about this song is how cinematic it is for a three minute pop song. It's almost done in three acts with a build, a climax, and an ending. It even has some strings just to tug at your emotions. If it isn't my imagination coming up with this concept, "Watching the Credits" is a wonderfully clever song that is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites from The Beths. You can listen to "Watching the Credits" below. For more on The Beths, check out their website . Upcoming t...

If you were at the 2022 Boston Music Awards, you're a fan of kei. The winner of Best New Artist blew the entire crowd away that night with one of the most energizing live performances I've ever seen. Her latest single, "like ooo," shows off why she's become a local sensation in the Boston music scene. It's a playful and energetic hip hop song that dabbles the tiniest of bits into R&B. As someone who prefers throwback hip hop more than the more popular and modern style, Boston seems to be producing artists that can live in both worlds. kei is an example of that, as "like ooo" sounds like a hip hop song in 2023 that acknowledges what came the forty years before. There are a lot of rappers around here that are due to break out nationally sooner than later, and kei is at the top of that list. You can watch the video for "like ooo" below. For more on kei, check out the artist on Twitter and Instagram .

Photo courtesy Already Dead Massachusetts based blue collar pop punks Already Dead released the fantastic My Collar is Blue back in October, and they're already back with a new song that's completely different. "Don't Wake Me" sees them teaming with Bos the Rapper in a song that's musically different from pop punk but still definitely pop punk. This one is reminding me a lot of the non-metal songs on the Judgment Night soundtrack, particularly Dinosaur Jr and Del the Funky Homosapien's "Missing Link." It has that punk edge to it, but with an unexpected funk and groove. This song is a blast, particularly if you love genre-crossing collaborations that are starting to pop up more in the Boston music scene. Bos the Rapper say of the new song: “It’s about traveling, the desire to move and see new places and being restless when you’re stuck in one spot. I love an open highway at night, driving and seeing the bright lights of a big city I’ve never been ...

Buckle up for this one. UAY formed in 2015 under the name FAUNO and changed their name to UAY in 2017. The band hails from Guadalajara, Mexico, and founded the Mexicadelia Festival there. UAY has this amazing sound that combines tropicalia rhythms from Mexico and South America with early No Wave/indie rock and psychedelia. Their new single, "Oye," sounds like Sonic Youth got lost playing one of those Lo Sound Desert festivals and just kept wandering. This is the kind of song we've never stumbled on before, and UAY could very well be life changing for a lot of us. Pay attention to these guys. You can listen to "Oye" below. Kukulkan is due out June 6 on Halfshell Records. The album can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp . For more on UAY, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram . Kukulkan by UAY

Spring is supposed to be a time of rebirth, but for some reason we keep bringing you songs about mortality lately. The latest comes from Harry Sullivan's solo project, From the Tiger's Mouth. The Londoner's new song is "Getting Old," which is an alt-rock rock epic that is shooting for the giant stages of festivals and arenas. There is also an interesting folk/rock dynamic to the song. It has a little bit of a Frank Turner meets U2 sound to it. Many of us are going to relate to the opening line of "Oh great, I just found another gray hair" more than we want to. As somber as the material can get in "Getting Old," From the Tiger's Mouth have created a surprisingly uplifting song. Harry Sullivan says of his new song:  “...we're all only here for a finite amount of time and I guess I've reached a point where selfishly, I don't want the party to stop.” You can watch the video for "Getting Old" below. For more on From the Tig...

Massachusetts' premier bitch pop and art rock band Sapling have returned with a brand new single. "11:37" was written immediately following the death of Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins, who was a major influence on Sapling bass player and vocalist Rainy. A quiet ballad wouldn't be a fitting tribute, and "11:37" is not a quiet song. It's a little more restrained than some of Sapling's previous offerings, but this is a song built from heartache and is equally mournful and frustrated. Despite the volume, it's an oddly beautiful song that seems to venture more into the world of prog-rock than we're used to from Sapling. In a Facebook post, Rainy says of the new song: "11:37 has been a sacred and synchronistic number for me for some time now and I realized that the first time I saw Taylor play live was when he still played for Alanis Morrisette in 1996. I was 11. Of course, I was 37 last year when he passed. "I sat down and star...

Photo courtesy Sunshine Riot For their latest single, Boston's Sunshine Riot are still maintaining their neo-grunge sound, but it's softened a wee bit. Frontman Jonny Orton is going full Cobain on the vocals of "Room to Moan," but musically the song comes across a little more reserved and almost pop based. To me, this song sounds like if Nirvana showed up for Unplugged with electric instruments but decided to play them quietly... except for Dave Grohl who is still gonna go all out. It's a harsh and reflective power ballad that still contains more than a little beauty. It's also the neo-grunge song that feels most like a grunge song. Part of the intense grunge vibes in "Room to Moan" are due to the subject matter. Jonny Orton explains: “There's a line in Soundgarden's ‘The Day I Tried to Live’, it goes ‘The lives we make / Never seem to get us anywhere but dead’. It always struck me. There is something gripping about that lyric – I think we al...

Photo by Izzie Austin When it came time to craft their new album, Australia's The Murlocs decided to create a country rock record along the lines of The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Once you listen to their new single, you'll be able to judge if they did or not. "Initiative" is a cosmic country song that is truly cosmic. A lot of the genre adds in just a little psychedelia for flavoring, but The Murlocs dumped the whole thing into their little country rock song. It's a rambling song that just kind of meanders around. It's the kind of song that's trying to hold it together and come across as normal, but we all know what it's been up to. Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, guitar, harmonica) says of the new song: “It’s about recognizing the need to start taking responsibility for your life instead of always living in the now and killing all your brain cells along the way. Not everyone wants the big family and the big house with the white picket fence. Ev...

Photo by Joshua Pickering Eddie Japan have been kicking around the Boston music scene for at least a decade now (they won the Rock and Roll Rumble back in 2013). For their latest single, the aptly named "Time Machine," they brought in Greg Hawkes of The Cars, which is truly a dream pairing. Eddie Japan have long seemed like a band out of time. The new song combines New Wave, pop rock, glam, art-pop, etc. to create this sound that's a modern take on the 1980's. This is a ridiculously fun theatrical pop song that both is and isn't an 80's throwback. It's heavily inspired by that decade, but it doesn't quite sound like music released back then. Eddie Japan make music that isn't going to fit any label cleanly, and that's half the fun. Plus, anyone that lets us hear Greg Hawkes on a synthesizer is ok in our book! Vocalist and songwriter David Santos says of the new song: “The song is about trying to get back to that early stage of a relationship whe...

Photo by Ry Essi The three members of Gal Pal met in college where they all lived on the same floor of their dorm. The trio learned their instruments together and released their debut album back in 2017 while still in college. It's been six years since then, but the Los Angeles based band is finally back with a new album due in June. The first single off of that album, "Angel in the Flesh," is a dark and moody take on shoegaze mixed with the harder fuzz of grunge. However, the vocals are lush and gorgeous. They mix that dreamy quality of shoegaze vocals, but more along the lines of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. "Angel in the Flesh" is this bouncy, moody, noisy, and beautiful single. Gal Pal borrow from multiple related genres, taking the best parts of them all for a killer new single. Nico Romero says of his band's new single: “I grew up listening to a lot of pop punk and emo bands. I was a big fan of labels like Fueled By Ramen and Decaydance as a kid. I ...

Photo by Alec Bowman_Clarke The latest from Josienne Clarke is a short and simple folk song that will enrapture you in less than two minutes. "Words Were Never the Answer" is just Clarke's vocals and an arpeggio providing music. The song is truly a showcase for Clarke's vocals, and those are enough to suck you in. Something about the song feels old fashioned and modern at the same time. This is classic folk music brought modern, sounding familiar and fresh at the same time. The only negative of the song is that it ends so abruptly that you're left desperate for more, but that's hardly a bad thing. Josienne Clarke says of her new single: “Nothing can be achieved with just melody and sentences, however well you structure them.  You only ever make pretty shapes with pain and the best you can hope for is that it resonates somehow with someone else in some way. It’s not intended to be as bleak as that sounds; I’m making light of the foolish grandiosity that drives ...

Any song called "1999" is going to be nostalgic, but you may not be ready for how nostalgic the latest from DJ Crypt will make you. "1999" isn't quite a mash-up or a sonic collage. Instead, it's a basic song structure with little snippets of various hip hop songs from the 90's. The pieces of the songs all invoke reminiscing or talking about the past. There are a lot that include the line "back in the day." It's a song about thinking about your past using parts of songs about thinking about the past. It's a clever and fairly cinematic technique that is going to make you reminisce just based on the samples used.  You can listen to "1999" below. Gineses is due out April 28 on Goon Musick. For more on DJ Crypt, check out the artist on Instagram and Facebook .

Photo by Zachary Chick Wednesday have been releasing absolutely epic songs lately, but their latest is a two and a half minute sprint of a song. "TV in the Gas Pump" is an enigma of a song. It's a mid-tempo indie rock song that is almost twee in nature, except for the fact that there are bursts of indie rock noise throughout virtually the entire song. It has this element of being a sweet and pretty song while being absolutely jarring at times that make it a must listen. On one side "TV in the Gas Pump" is that kind of Americana laced indie rock that is all the rage these days, and on the other it's a swirling mess of noise. But... that's the kind of thing we love about Wednesday. Karly Hartzman says of the new song: “ This is the first song I’ve written about being on the road, and I really just wanted to collect all that imagery you ingest on tour.  A few images that made it in the song include: the never ending gas station stops that blend together and...

Sudanese-Canadian rapper Mouraine has released a new single that is a bit more mainstream hip hop than we normally cover, but the Edmonton based artist puts his own unique spin on the sound. "Tonight" has that laid back, R&B heavy sound that has taken over music lately, but Mouraine has such a natural charisma that comes through in the song that makes it impossible to resist. "Tonight" will remind you a lot of an artist like Childish Gambino with its accessibility, charm, and unique vibe that makes the song stand out from others in the genre. Mouraine says of his new song: "This song runs through a journey from my younger days. My humble beginnings trying to adjust and fit in a new country as a refugee reaching a place where I no longer had to worry about my safety and basic survival needs, but now I had to face new struggles. It's hard to dream big when the system is set up to limit you to a stereotype. being in a dilemma of feeling grateful but still ...

Artist : Black Honey Album : A Fistful of Peaches Quick Thoughts : Been a fan of Black Honey for a bit, but wow, this album just blew me away. Lots of great rock songs from top to bottom and really not a bad listen in the bunch. In a heavy release week, this would be worth your time, never mind being one of the best of the spring. Songs of Note : "Heavy," "Out of My Mind," "Rock Bottom," "Cut the Cord," "Weirdos" Artist : The Van Pelt Album : Artisans and Merchants Quick Thoughts : I wanted to highlight this album because it's a very interesting listen this week. The best way I can describe it is if The War on Drugs was influenced more by 1980s/1990s college radio. It scratches a very specific itch for me, and I'm glad Ken sent it over to me. Really enjoyed this one. Songs of Note : "Artisans and Merchants," "Grid," "Cold Coconuts" Artist : Angel Snow Album : Yesterday is Here Quick Th...