If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Jason Zucco It seems bonkers to me that Converge has been around for thirty-five years now, but considering they formed in 1990, it makes mathematical (if not emotional) sense. The Boston metalcore titans are once again back with a new single. "Love Is Not Enough" is, predictably, a powerhouse song. It's loud and dissonant and filled with all of the aggression you require for a Converge song. Despite being around for three and a half decades, they're showing zero signs of even slowing down a tiny bit. What makes them stand out apart from most of their peers, and makes them appeal to those of us who don't typically love music this heavy, is just how hard a song like "Love Is Not Enough" grooves. Plus, it cycles through multiple speeds and sounds in just under two and a half minutes. I certainly don't need to tell anyone how great Converge are, especially since they continue to prove it again and again. Vocalist/lyricist Jacob Bannon says the ...

Photo by Dan Saltzman Boston's TELL have returned with a new protest song written in the wake of the 2024 election. "Things to Do When It's Dark" is a dark and ominous song, for obvious reasons. To me, it sounds like if Leonard Cohen wrote a noise rock or post punk song. There's also a somewhat unexpected glam element to the song, albeit a gritty and grungy one. Despite being three and a half minutes long, there's a lot going on in "Things to Do When It's Dark." While protest music is typically furious and loud, TELL's is more brooding and thoughtful, as if you're trying to figure out what can actually be done. Dan Wildman (guitar, lead vocals, and keyboard) says of his band's latest single: “I wrote ‘Things To Do When It’s Dark’ right after the horrific election. I was traumatized and the only way I could deal with it was to write a song. I had lyrics in the verse that were kind of a screed about what Trump is going to do to our coun...

Nick & June is the Berlin based musical duo comprised of Nick Wolf and Suzie-Lou Kraft. Their latest single, "2017," sees the pair team with Peter Silberman of The Antlers. The new single is a gorgeous and lush song that combines folk with dream pop. It's a highly compelling song that instantly sucks you in with haunting and alluring vocals. What's truly interesting is how the song could have been a simple folk or singer-songwriter track and been stellar. But the addition of droning guitars and a hazy dream pop vibe brings "2017" to an entirely new level. Nick & June have crafted a mesmerizing and highly addictive song with their latest. Nick Wolf says of his band's latest single: “It’s good to occasionally ask yourself why  your mind keeps wandering back to  the past. Who’s still living in 2017?  Ever since I  discovered The Antlers’ album ‘Hospice’ back in 2009, I’ve been a huge fan of Peter and the band. To me, he’s one of the best songwriters...

Photo by Kittie Krivacic Magic Fig continue to be the perfect example of what psych-pop from San Francisco should sound like in 2025. Their latest single, "Goblin," is a gorgeous dream-like song that stays compelling throughout it's six minute length. Every time the song starts to get a little too comfortable in its sound, it adjusts and transforms just enough to keep it interesting. It sounds like Magic Fig collected their favorite parts of music in the past six decades to make "Goblin." It's poppy, and trippy, and somewhat twee at times while being epic at others. This is the kind of song that will make you feel like you're on psychedelics without actually imbibing.  Inna Showalter (vocals/mellotron) says of her band's latest single is... : “About the fickleness of inspiration. It’s also a song about wearing disguises and not being authentic, which causes harm in the long run. The desire to be accepted and ‘good’ cannot always coexist with followin...

Photo by Jeff Pitcher Chaos was my third favorite album of 2024, so I'm thrilled that The Baby Seals are back with a new song. The Cambridgeshire punks just released "Tamoo Trance," a fun and energetic punk track. The song is "... about getting stuck in a trance-like state in an online shop," which is perfect for The Baby Seals. It's funny without being jokey, and is delightfully biting. It's filled with fuzzed out guitars and heavy bass lines, and shows just how fun the genre can be. "Tamoo Trance" is one of those songs that's both punk and pop without being pop punk. If anything, it fits into the subgenres of noise punk and garage punk, just on the far reaches of the fun side of those styles. Frontwoman Kerry says of the band's latest single: “... (it’s) about noticing how quickly we get entrapped online into spending money, and spending the latest form of currency, our attention, and questioning how to break away from it.  It's a...

Photo by Richard McCaffrey The latest from Deer Tick is perfect for the upcoming/current holiday season, but it could also work out for any time of the year. "Light Up Reindeer" is exactly what we love about the Providence band. It merges the worlds of country, folk, and rock into one sound. This one is more of a laid back rock song with flecks of country, and reminds me a lot of Tom Petty's sound. "Light Up Reindeer" is more of a holiday song by title, but I'm still going to sneak it onto a Christmas playlist or two. This is a welcome return from Deer Tick, and shows why they've been a favorite of ours long before we started If It's Too Loud... Ian O'Neil (guitar/vocals) says of his band's latest single: "Light Up Reindeer is about the interior conversation you have with yourself when you're trying to talk yourself away from your darkest thoughts. Useless, intrusive thinking puts a distance between the best part of ourselves and the...

Photo by David Doobinin Boston alt-rock legend Juliana Hatfield has a new single out from her upcoming album, and this one is going to make virtually every one of her fans delighted. "Fall Apart" captures the mood of her earlier, 90's music and combines it with her more recent, more laid back sound. It lands in this great middle ground between The Juliana Hatfield Three and Adult Contemporary. Hatfield was one of the stand-out artists during the 90's alt-rock boom, and "Fall Apart" shows why she's still one of the most beloved and respected artists decades into her career. I'll challenge anyone to hold "Fall Apart" up to any of her work from the 90's. This is truly one of her most compelling songs she's released. Juliana Hatfield says of her latest single: “I do make a point to say I fall apart now and then. It's not that I have fallen apart and you can never put me back together. I'm just talking about things that are real....

Artist : STL GLD Album : Good Music for Bad Kids Quick Thoughts : I get that Joyner Lucas gets all the regional rap love here, but at what point are we willing to admit that STL GLD is New England's best rap act? The beats are grimy and addictive, the lyricism unmatched, and the collective regularly punches above its weight. We love the act here, and Good Music is one of those records that show how deserving they are of a breakout. Songs of Note : "80's Babies," "Ayo Edebiri," 24KT," "Dances With Wolves," "The Get Up Kids," "Too Much," "The Clapper" Artist : Austra Album : Chin Up Buttercup Quick Thoughts : The opening line of "Math Equation" is probably the most brutal breakup lyric I've ever heard. It's a sad dance album in so many ways, as the cover clearly demonstrates, but as someone who has been a fan of Austra for ages now, this is one of her stronger albums. A really, really g...

I'm fairly new to the world of Die Spitz fandom. I only discovered them through their most recent album, Something to Consume , but was immediately grabbed. Sunday night I joined an interesting mix of twenty-something hipsters and middle aged metal dudes at The Sinclair when Die Spitz came roaring into town.  Reading about Die Spitz's live show, my expectations were high. I'm thrilled to say they exceeded all expectations. They were an absolute powerhouse live right from the opening song, "I hate when GIRLS die." Their show is an energetic whirlwind of sound, mostly in the metal and punk side of music, but occasionally delving into some more pop oriented sounds. They had a sense of chaos throughout their set, with singer/guitarist Ellie Livingston playing in the crowd at one point and then climbing the balcony railing at another. Chloe de St. Aubin and Ava Schrobilgen also took turns on vocals and traded guitar and drums during the show. Bassist Kate Halter seemed...

Photo by Melisa Lunar For their latest single, Mexico City's Diles Que No Me Maten have re-recorded a song off their first album. "Manos de Piedra (Revisitada)" is an intense song in a post-hardcore and indie rock style. It's filled with intense and oddly melodic music over spoken word vocals. The music is what will truly pull you in, even if you don't understand Spanish and have no idea what the lyrics are. This one is reminding me of a more earthy version of Slint. Even when the song takes an unexpected break in the middle and comes back more mellow, you're still going to be won over by the intense music of Diles Que No Me Maten. Jon ás Dérb ez (vocals/saxophone) says of his band's latest single: “​​This is an old song from our first album that we've been playing in a different way this past year. We decided to re-record it and re-release it because it felt great to see how the same ghost of that song has grown within us. It's not pretending to b...

Photo courtesy of the band Soft Skies Inc, aka the Philadelphia band consisting of twin brothers Martin and Ryan Rex who were in Boston band Lockgroove, typically make dream pop, but their latest single goes a little bit heavier than that genre usually gets. "The Point" is a driving alt-rock song that shows off the band's 90's origins. It's a driving song that grooves quite hard. It's reminding me of bands in the late 90's that were making rock music that you could dance to. Even though I'm comparing "The Point" to music from the 90's, it doesn't truly sound like a throwback song. Soft Skies Inc sound current on their latest single while it does have it's roots in that decade. This is a fun sounding one, despite the song's subject matter. Ryan Rex says of his band's latest single: “‘The Point’ is about when something that once saved you starts to drown you instead. It’s about the beautiful kind of destruction you can’t see...

Photo by Charlie & Charlie Last year we brought you a pair of singles from Man/Woman/Chainsaw, one of the more unique discoveries of 2024. Now the London band is back with "Only Girl." As diverse as they were last year, Man/Woman/Chainsaw push their sound even further with this new single. We described previous songs as being moody/theatrical and having more of a punk sound. "Only Girl" is more of a straight up alt-rock song with some elements of Adult Contemporary, but with strings. Sometimes bands can be the most surprising by going more mainstream, and that's certainly the case here. But mainstream is always a relative term, and "Only Girl" is still a Man/Woman/Chainsaw song, so it's still a fun and theatrical track. Vera Leppanen (vocals/bass) says of the band's latest single: "’Only Girl’ is our playful love song. Built around a ripping violin top-line and birthed from a grungy guitar jam, it gradually became something more boiste...

Photo by OK McCausland Ski Team, the musical project of Lucie Lozinski, has a new single out that combines lo-fi indie rock with the current crop of artists that combine the genre with modern alt-pop. "New BF" is a fast and driving song that includes all of the charm of lo-fi indie rock. It's kind of like a bedroom version of artists like Blondshell or Lucy Dacus. The song is wonderfully fuzzy and catchy, and sounds like an updated version of Sebadoh. Our only complaint is that at just under two and a half minutes, just as you realize how much you love the song, it's over. Ski Team might be the perfect bridge between 90's indie rock snobs and current indie rock snobs. Lucie Lozinski says of her latest single: “I’ve always thought it's a weird thing, saying 'congrats' when people get engaged—as though it’s an end, or an achievement." You can listen to "New BF" below. Burnout/Boys is due out January 23, and is available for pre-order here ...

Last year on November 15, I was at Deep Cuts in Medford for the fifth anniversary of Hallelujah the Hills' album I'm You. What should have been a celebratory occasion was somewhat somber as everyone in the audience was still trying to figure out if we should be having fun at that point in history. This year on November 15, I was at Deep Cuts in Medford for Hallelujah the Hills' twentieth anniversary, and this year we were able to celebrate properly.  It's a crazy feeling to me that one of my "new" bands has been around for twenty years, but I haven't been around for all of Hallelujah the Hills' two decades. I got into them around 2014's Have You Ever Done Something Evil? Because of that, I wasn't all that familiar with much of their set, which strongly focused on their earlier songs. Some songs, such as 2012's "Nightengale Lightning," I don't believe I've ever seen performed live. This was definitely a night for long term ...