First Listen: A Week Off

By -
Hi all! No First Listen this week as other priorities got in the way of organizing it. We will recap this week's releases in next week's cycle.

In apologies, here is a video of Ben Gibbard doing a version of one of my favorite songs from last year, "Archie, Marry Me" from Alvvays's debut album, originally on Stereogum:

On Repeat...

Yawn Mower - "Rascal"

By -
Image
Photo by Mary Dorsi Asbury Park's Yawn Mower had two goals for their upcoming album. First, after playing their hometown's Sea.Hear.Now festival, they wanted to write songs that worked on a larger stage. Second, they wanted the album to be their Pinkerton , "A raw, rough around the edges, noisier follow up to [their] debut album." The first song from that album is "Rascal," a song partly about the kids of their friends and family. It's a fun track that includes lines like "Here he comes now what a little asshole." It's a quirky and noisy indie rock track that reminds me of an edgier Fountains of Wayne. As anti-kid as the song may seem, you can tell it's not done seriously and there is a ton of love behind the track. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Chick says of the band's upcoming album: “While Dana Yurcisin (bass), Rudy Meier (guitar),  and Nicole Scorsone (violin) have certainly helped fill out past releases, this was the first time that ...
Read more

Rocket - "Wide Awake"

By -
Image
Photo by Tanner Deutsch Rocket have been making 90's inspired alt-rock, but their latest single ups the ante on that sound. "Wide Awake" is a mixture of shoegaze fuzz and the more jagged style of guitars that made me love Sonic Youth. Singer/bassist Alithea Tuttle's vocals have a dreamlike quality suited to dream pop or shoegaze, which contrasts delightfully with the more aggressive parts of the song. Despite not truly sounding like a song made in the 90's, "Wide Awake" has so many elements of that decade to give you little bursts of nostalgia. Plus, the video for the song is like a cross between Blur's "Charmless Man" and Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)," in case you need a little more nostalgia thrown in. Rocket say of their new single: “R is for Rocket is about relationships, the most important part of life; relationships with your friends, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and most impo...
Read more

First Listen: New Releases for 11 June

By -
Image
Artist : COWBOY BOY Album : GOOD GIRL Quick Thoughts : While I don't know how I tripped up on COWBOY BOY, but it takes a lot for me not to be into a power pop band, and thus they charmed me from the very start. This is a quick hit album without any real negatives to point out - the vocals are great, the songs are fun while still being somewhat serious, and the whole package is a really solid listen from beginning to end. Songs of Note : "DREAM DREAM DREAM," "PET," "SHRINK," "INCONVENIENT" Artist : St. Lenox Album : Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for Our Tumultuous Times Quick Thoughts : St. Lenox does some earnest folk rock/indie pop, and this album does what it says on the tin: it's music about religion, but it's not religious music, if that makes any sense. St. Lenox lays it all out on the table, though - grappling with faith, belief (and the lack thereof), family... it's a heavy record in spite of its light presentatio...
Read more