Earlier this year I was lucky enough to see shame and it might have been one of the best shows I've seen in years. I'm thrilled we already have new music from the South London band, and especially since it's such a sonic shift for them. "Fingers of Steel" is much more melodic than anything off 2021's Drunk Tank Pink while still sounding like what we love about shame. It's a new style of post punk that's less aggressive and more sonically pleasing although it's also more discordant than they typically get. Everything about "Fingers of Steel" seems just slightly off and out of tune, but that's kind of what makes the song great. It's so close to being a mainstream straight up modern rock song, but shame just could never quite do that so you get another wonderfully unique song like this one.
You can watch the video for "Fingers of Steel" below. Food for Worms is due out February 24 on Dead Oceans, which can be pre-ordered here. For more on shame, check out the band on Facebook and Twitter. Upcoming tour dates are below the video.
Only a band like Fucked Up could write and record a full album in twenty four hours and have it actually be this good and polished. Of course, polished is subjective. Their latest single, "Found," is this glorious mix of straight up alt-rock, indie rock, punk, and hardcore. Damian Abraham's vocals are always going to be gruff, but a lot of the rest of "Found" is surprisingly melodic. There are some killer vocal harmonies on the outro of the song, and the guitars almost have a Mission of Burma goes prog rock thing going. The gang vocals are more melodic than you would expect, and harmonizing with Abraham's growl can't be easy.
Guitarist and songwriter Mike Haliechuk says of the new song:
"I used to live on Davenport Road, which is one of the oldest streets in North America, and has been a First Nations trail for thousands of years, running along the north shore of Lake Iroquois, which receded after the last ice age. Just to the east was Taddle Creek, which was buried underground during the 19th century to build the streets I walk on. I thought about gentrification a lot, watching little stores get swallowed up by big buildings until I realized I am one of those big buildings. The name of the song comes from the Shadi Bartsch translation of The Aeneid, where she points out that the words 'found' and 'stab' open and close the book, which are two meanings for the same Greek verb. That discovery is actually conquest, and that settlement is always violence. And that any story I try to tell myself about the place I found to live can only be a story to justify the expansion of one people across the world of another."
You can listen to "Found" below. One Day is due out January 27 on Merge Records, and can be pre-ordered here. For more on Fucked Up, check out the band's website.
I agree that it's too early for Christmas music, but this is a cover of Wham!'s immortal "Last Christmas," which is my personal favorite Christmas song, but ironically and unironically. Nashville's Goldpark take their shot at the song, and it's a mostly faithful version that updates the sound of "Last Christmas" while keeping the roots of the 80's original. This is pure pop cheese done in a glorious modern indie rock way, and you can tell that Goldpark had a ton of fun with this one. And isn't that all we truly want with a Christmas song?
Goldpark says of the song:
"'Last Christmas' was one of the first songs that came to our minds when thinking about Christmas songs that we would like to cover. It strikes this interesting balance of being warm and bringing a smile to your face while also giving you a sense of sorrow. Those two things together tend to make a great Christmas song."
You can listen to Goldpark's version of "Last Christmas" below. For more on the band, check out their website.
Based in Brooklyn, TVOD (aka Television Overdose) are considered "disco-punk" which makes perfect sense once you hear their newest single. "Goldfish" has all of the aggression and discordance you would expect to hear with punk, but it's oddly dance friendly. I don't mean in that way that a lot of modern punk borders on dance music. It's even... fun? Which is unsually considered forbidden in a song this punk. "Goldfish" is punk even by the more strict definitions of that genre. But it's going to make you want to genuinely dance. It's kind of post-punk in that way, but this is more punk than post-punk typically gets. Hence disco-punk.
Lead vocalist and songwriter Tyler Wright says of the story behind the song:
"Our guitar player Jason and I were messing around before band practice one day and started hammering out these very primal bass & drum beats. I couldn't help but use my goldfish 'Phoebe' who had passed the day before as the writing inspiration for this song. I felt guilty about her biting the big one under my watch so I decided to write a song in which my friend Ted is actually is the one that murders her. RIP Phoebe. I blame Ted."
You can watch the video for "Goldfish" below. For more on TVOD, check out the band's website.
Based on their name, Holy Moly & The Crackers sound nothing like what I expected them to sound like. They're also from Newcastle, and "Hot Red" isn't anything like what I'd expect a band from the UK to sound like. This is a killer straight up soul/rock song. I don't think saying a song like "Hot Red" doesn't stray too far from the genre is a negative because when a band nails a genre like Holy Moly & The Crackers have, why change things up too much? To me this sounds like a cross between Amy Winehouse and the more rootsy sound of Julie Rhodes. We typically get really into this kind of sound, so expect to hear more from these folks in the near future!
Band co-leader says of the new single:
“Hot Red's about being addicted to the road, about moving from horizon to horizon. I guess it was on our mind a lot over the last few years when we couldn't go further than our local park. It's the first track from our new album and shows off what we are trying to do musically - we focused on grooves, bass lines, finding space for the vocals to move and breathe. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Vance Powell on the mixes. You know, this guys a powerhouse, he brought a lot of energy to the table.”
You can watch the video for "Hot Red" below. Solid Gold is due out March 17 on Pink Lane Records, and can be pre-ordered here. For more on Holy Moly & The Crackers, check out the band's Facebook and Twitter.
Based out of Brooklyn, Weeping Icon have a very specific sound crafted from a few related yet different genres. Their latest single, "Two Ways," has the edge and metal adjacent sound of L7 mixed with the angst and driving punk of riot grrrl. What really makes a song like "Two Ways" stand out is that is also has some of the noise and sound quality of art rock or noise rock. All of this is with a post punk beat, which creates a fantastic mix of familiar sounds shot out in a unique blend of sound. Despite the anger involved, this is a really fun song that fans of straight up punk and metal as well as noise rock are going to get really into.
Sara Fantry of Weeping Icon says of the new song:
"'Two Ways' is about people who want to appear virtuous in their public facing personality, but live a contradictory shadow life in which they do whatever they please, no matter how harmful their actions are to others. It’s told through the voice of a man named Todd (yes, that’s his real name!) who I encountered a few years back. He used a harmful term towards a woman he was angry with, then accepted a long explanatory talk from me, appeared to reflect, enthusiastically told me he’d appreciated me taking the time to educate him and agreed to change his behavior, and then immediately found that same woman and started calling her harmful sexist names without a moment between. I was truly in shock at how comfortable he was with his personality being stratified into two layers - the outward-facing kind, modern man, looking to learn from the necessarily rapid changes in society - and the sinister, selfish sadist beneath who believes in his own entitlement to act with impunity."
You can watch the video for "Two Ways" below. Ocelli is due out November 18 on Fire Talk Records. The EP can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp. For more on Weeping Icon, check out the band on Facebook and Twitter.
Salt Lake City's Wicked Bears are pop punk in the best possible way. Their new single, "Lucky," has that great 90's throwback feel to it. It's aggressive and a little bratty, but it's almost impossibly catchy. At first listen it's a little dumb, but the more you listen the more clever it becomes. It's a funny and silly song while being a truly heartfelt love song in disguise. "Lucky" is the kind of song that you might be a little embarrassed for liking at first, but by the time it's over you're going to end up wholeheartedly loving it. Instead of making you feel old, it's going to remind you of everything you enjoyed about being young.
Wicked Bears say of their new song:
"If you've ever dedicated $20 to a claw machine and gone home empty-handed, this song is for you. If you've ever felt like, no matter what road you take, there's gonna be a dead end at the end of it, this song is for you. If you've ever been arrested while robbing a bank, this song is for you. 'Lucky' is for the unluckiest of us, who are tired of explaining our despondency to those more lucky. Now you don't have to explain! You can just send them this song. Do you feel lucky? If not, this song is for you."
You can watch the video for "Lucky" below. Underwater is due out in spring 2023 on Wiretap Records. For more on Wicked Bears, check out the band's website.
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.
It may not be my normal music of choice, but I love Mali Obomsawin's new album Sweet Tooth. My taste in music can lean pretty far on the experimental side of things, but a three piece suite of music that is a mixture of jazz, folk, blues, Native cultures, etc. is new territory for me. But, I'm all about new experiences, so I headed out to Club Passim to experience it live.
Mali Obomsawin's Sweet Tooth is about Indigenous resistance, which she made quite clear while discussing the songs. She discussed how large the Wabanaki territory once was and how they are now limited to two reservations near Quebec, the influence (or attempted influence) of Jesuits on the Wabanaki, and joked about the lack of cultural relevance of Boston. It was definitely a night of challenging music, with plenty of discordance and experimenting going on with the music. As experimental as the recorded album is, live it was both more experimental and less experimental. At times the 6tet strayed away from the record, which almost made the songs more traditionally jazz, especially when the horn section had time to solo. It might sound weird saying that free form, improvisational jazz is "traditional," but compared to other parts of the suites, it was very traditional.
Club Passim definitely attracts an older crowd, especially with memberships and traditional folk music. I was curious how this crowd would handle the noise and dissonance of Sweet Tooth, but everyone was much more open minded than I expected and Mali Obomsawin 6tet was met with enthusiastic applause between songs. This is music that requires an open mind and rewards those that have it.
Olivia Shortt opened the show and asked if we were ready for "... weird shit and noise," and she definitely delivered on both of those. She played a thirty minute composition where she played notes on a saxophone and vocalized, looping those over and over to flesh out the musical piece more. It seemed more like something I'd expect to see opening for Sonic Youth than at Club Passim. At times it worked for me, and at times it didn't. But that's how "weird shit and noise" works best.
Nico Paulo was born in Canada, spent much of her childhood in Portugal, and is now back in Newfoundland. Her new single, "Now or Never," is based in Tropilcalia, but is more of a standard singer/songwriter track with pop elements. Despite the Tropicalia vibe, "Now or Never" reminds me a lot of Jeff Buckley. It has that same gorgeous quality, and has this epic feel despite being a relatively simple song. The harmonizing and background vocals are the true stars of the song and give it a truly unique and captivating quality. This song is guaranteed to suck you in even if you would never normally listen to anything described as Tropicalia.
Nico Paulo says of her new single:
"The lyric 'kiss me now or never, hold me close or let me go,” is one of the first lines I wrote and it has stayed relevant to my experiences ever since. This line has haunted me for almost a decade and recent experiences of loss and reconstructing of the self helped me to finally transform it into a song."
You can watch the video for "Now or Never" below. Nico Paulo's self-titled album is due out April 1 via Forward Music Group, and can be pre-ordered over at Bandcamp. For more on Nico Paulo, check out the artist's Instagram.
