If It's Too Loud...

Artist : Suzanne Santo Album : Yard Sale Quick Thoughts : I don't recall how I tripped up on Suzanne Santo, but her song "Ghost in My Bed" from a few years back is an all-time favorite. This new album continues to show how great she is at this sort of alt-country, roots-tinged music, with a number of high points. This is a great listen, and one worth listening to even if it were a busy week. Songs of Note : "Mercy," "Goldrush," "Save for Love," "Afraid of Heights" Artist : Madi Diaz Album : History of a Feeling Quick Thoughts : Madi Diaz is another name I remember, but I don't quite recall my first time listening to her. Still, History of a Feeling gives massive Julien Baker energy, especially on songs like "Do It Now" and "Think of Me," the latter of which is one of the most brutal songs I've heard in a while. This may be one of my favorite listens of the year, never mind the week or summer. ...

Musically, the latest single from the duo of War & Pierce is one of the most pleasant singles you've heard in a while. "Mercy" is a smooth folk and soul song that features Sunny War and Chris Pierce at their absolute best. It's a beautifully chill track that has a little intensity underlying the song. It's reminding me quite a bit of Marvin Gaye. Also, like Gaye's best work, the smoothness and sonic appeal of the song is in stark contrast to the message within the lyrics. It's a song about police brutality where the duo pleads about just wanting some mercy. Chris Pierce explains the message behind the song: “Our new single ‘Mercy’ deals with the constant resilience required by people of color in the United States and beyond. It recollects real-life situations while demonstrating that in life and death situations there remains no assurance that mercy will be shown or even considered on those targeted. It challenges those who target human beings based on...

Sierra Ferrell Photo by Ken Sears This weekend saw the triumphant return of the Green River Festival after the obvious year off. It was a month later than it has been in the past and at a brand new location, but you never would have known based on how smoothly things ran. It was a weekend of fantastic music filled with respectful, joyous music fans. Nothing could have run more smoothly, with the exception of a little too much sound overlap between some of the stages. Here were my musical highlights for the weekend! (Note: I was unable to attend Friday night, and I'm not including any artist I only saw a few songs of). Bella White This one can't be a surprise to anyone who has been reading If It's Too Loud... over the past few months. I've gone fully into rabid fan mode on Bella White, but with good reason. At only twenty years old, her stage presence and banter makes it feel like she's been doing this for decades longer than she's been alive. While last year...

Fantastic Negrito is just one of those artists that should be much bigger than they actually are. If there is any justice out there, his latest single should propel him to the stardom he deserves. "Rolling Through California" is a rootsy blues song with some modern day groove. It's definitely the grooviest song ever written about climate change. Yes, Fantastic Negrito has crafted an upbeat party jam about climate change. It's the kind of song that will have you dancing long before you pay attention to the lyrics and realize what it's about, much like how classic Public Enemy did. In the YouTube description of the video, Fantastic Negrito explains the meaning of his new song: “It all came together on that fateful day September 9, 2020. Everyone in Northern California woke up to a blood red sun on an orange sky. The air quality was the worst we had ever experienced. It felt and looked apocalyptic. Everything came to mind; climate change, drought, water management. I...

With their band Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, Walter Sickert blends folk, rock, metal, cabaret, punk, and just about every genre of music you can imagine, but I never expected Sickert to go hip hop. However, that's what you get with their latest musical project. Performing under the name Walter Alice, Sickert has brought in Boston MC Brandie Blaze for "Party In My Heads." (A Facebook post calls this song " A brutally positive, Dystopian, end of summer jam." Gr anted, sometimes the Army of Broken Toys do dip their toes in the world of hip hop, but "Party In My Heads" is a full on hip hop song. Well, not quite. There is more than a little of the industrial sound of Ministry here, but this is still mostly hip hop. What's truly surprising and great is how great of a rapper Sickert proves to be. You would expect them to be blown away by a more experienced MC, but Sickert holds their own right alongside Blaze's fantastic verse. You ca...

Photo by Julian Neel Austin's Natalie Jane Hill has crafted an absolutely perfect modern folk epic with "Orb Weaver." The song isn't a throwback or old timey by any means. Instead, it's a timeless folk/Americana song that could have been released any time in the past fifty years. It's a simple song, with Hill's mesmerizing vocals mixing expertly with a picked guitar and possibly some steel guitar poking out of the background for atmosphere. "Orb Weaver" is far more hypnotic than haunting, and is a truly beautiful, organic folk song from Hill. In a press release, Natalie Jane Hill says of the new song: “'Orb Weaver' is a song about comparing myself to the hidden intricacies that I might find on a walk in the woods. I attach most of my memories to what is visually around during a certain time. Sometimes there is a comfort to the natural world and other times there is a harshness. My experiences can almost mirror them. I’d like to think that...

The latest song from Kinnie Starr defies all genres. The Juno winning artist has been making music for twenty five years, and was even signed to Mercury/Island/Def Jam in 1997. Her latest single, "Runnin' Right Beside You," sounds like if an electronic artist decided to try to craft a folk song using electronic instruments, and also combine their indigenous heritage and hip hop. It almost sounds like an organic, stripped down M.I.A. It's a mellow but intense song that you might not be able to resist. In a press release, Kinnie Starr says of her new song: “'Runnin’ Right Beside You' is a song about the freedom of potential movement forward after the grand pause of a pandemic. "With an aggressive reframe and a push to immediately implement green technologies using indigenous knowledge that we are servants of the land, imagine what the future could look like! "Our leaders are not leading, and people are in a state of unrest. Here in so-called Canada, ou...

I know, I know. The whole point of these Festival Fridays has been to highlight lesser known artists playing this year's Green River Festival. The band closing out the main stage of the entire weekend isn't exactly lesser known, but they are my favorite active band so how could I resist? The Drive-By Truckers' blend of southern rock with punk guitars is going to blow everyone who sticks around to the end away, and here are the reasons I'm beyond excited to see them this Sunday night. 1. They only have ninety minutes. A typical Drive-By Truckers show lasts from anywhere between two and three hours. Hell, they usually take the first hour to get warmed up before the performance reaches transcendence. What will they be like with a shortened set? 2. I've never seen them at a big, outdoor festival before. I've only ever seen them in clubs and theaters. While clubs are the kind of shows I love the most, sometimes you just want to see certain bands play in front of the ...

Lydia Loveless has been delving into pop music for the past few years, all but abandoning her alt-country roots. Her newer sound hasn't worked for all her fans on every release, which is fine. Artists should change their sound up as they grow, and sometimes not everyone will be on board. But anyone that has stopped paying attention is going to miss out on her latest single. "You're Leaving Me" and "Let's Make Out" are the best songs Loveless has released with her more pop oriented sound. "You're Leaving Me" is a pop ballad, with Loveless doing her best take on crooner style vocals and just the slightest hints of country hiding in the background. "Let's Make Out" is the most Loveless song title we've had in years. This one is much more of a 90's pop rocker and sounds like Letters to Cleo covering Loveless's "Boy Crazy." This pair of new songs has us rabid to hear what else Loveless has been working on for ...

Photo by Michael Oswald New Hampshire punk legends The Queers have long worn their love of classic oldies on their sleeves. Joe Queer and crew have covered The Beach Boys, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Hollies, etc. for years, plus a lot of their originals have that classic sound. Somehow, they've never released an entire album of covers, but that will change next month. The first single off that album is a cover of The Monkees' "Valleri." It's not a song I knew just by name. Instead of the typical bubblegum pop Monkees song, "Valleri" is much more psychedelic, presumably from The Monkees' more serious period. The Queers take most of the psychedelia out of the song (most, but definitely not all) and strip it down into a crusty pop punk anthem. You know... they make it sound like The Queers. You can listen to The Queers' take on "Valleri" below. Reverberation  is due out September 24 on Cleopatra Records. It will also feature covers...

Photo by Nick Fancher Marissa Nadler has kept herself busy during the pandemic. Suddenly experiencing wanderlust while being stuck at home. She learned to play the piano, and wrote many of the songs on her upcoming album on piano instead of her usual guitar. She also binged a lot of reruns of Unsolved Mysteries , which helped inspire the first single from the album. "Bessie, Did You Make It?" takes the standard murder ballad and makes it about female empowerment and survival. "Bessie, Did You Make It?" is haunting (This is a murder ballad by Marissa Nadler, after all), but it's also strangely warm. If you can imagine that instead of a cold spot, ghosts created an ideally warm, comfy hug, you can imagine the texture of this song. You can watch the video for "Bessie, Did You Make It?" below. The Path of the Clouds is due out October 29 on Sacred Bones and Bella Union. You can pre-order your copy here . For more on Marissa Nadler, check out the artist...

Photo by FishBones Photography The Legendary Shack Shakers are celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary by inviting former members to join them on a new all country & western album. The first single from that album is a cover of the theme song to the television western  Rawhide. Of course, the Legendary Shack Shakers can't just do a straight cover of "Rawhide!," but this does come quite close. It's probably ninety or so percent faithful to the original, except for the bizarre darkness and sense of dread that the cover evokes. It's a fun reworking of the original that is perfect for this group of musical legends. You can watch the video for the Legendary Shack Shakers' version of "Rawhide!" below. Cockadoodledeux (a reference to their 2002 album Cockadoodledon't ) is due out October 8 on Alternative Tentacles. You can pre-order the album in various bundles here . For more on Legendary Shack Shakers, check out the band's website .

Photo by Austin Nelson My Morning Jacket are one of those bands I feel like I should be more into than I actually am. They're equal parts indie rock and folk with a little (ok, way more than a little) jam band thrown in. I even saw them at the Newport Folk Festival all the way back in 2012 and really, really enjoyed them. But for some reason, I've never truly jumped into their catalog. In October, My Morning Jacket are releasing their first new album in over six years, so now may just be the time to get fully invested in them. "Regularly Scheduled Programming" is the kind of epic we expect from the band. It starts off mostly with Jim James' vocals, almost sounding like a hymn. Slowly the song builds into more of an epic, adding instruments and a choir, which just adds to the religious feel of the song. Eventually the song builds into a crescendo of psychedelia that sounds like Sonic Youth's later, more jammy period. Yeah... I feel like now is the time to final...

Photo by Felipe Torres We've been digging Gustaf for about a year now. The Brooklyn band's blend of infectious dance friendly post punk has been impossible to resist. Their latest single, "Best Behavior," changes up their formula a little. "Best Behavior" is more of a groovy, chilled out track. It's mid-tempo and maybe just a little too laid back to really dance to, but you're still going to be beckoned to move to it. It features Lydia Gammell speak singing over some disjointed funk almost like a bizarro world version of Tom Petty where he jammed with George Clinton and Gang of Four. Vocalist Lydia Gammell explains Gustaf's new song: " The song’s ethos is a bit of the old and the new attitude for Gustaf. Our narrator, the ‘ego slob’, is bargaining with itself, scrounging for self compassion and self assurance despite a pile of hurt feelings in its wake. In demanding spoils despite having done nothing to earn them, we see the initial cracks i...

Artist : Lorde Album : Solar Power Quick Thoughts : Lorde has made some seriously iconic songs over the years, which makes Solar Power largely a confusing affair. It's not that the album is bad - in fact, on first listen, I might like it more than Melodrama - but that it's very unassuming. It gives a definitive inluenceresque summery vibe, and that was somewhat unexpected from someone who presents as a more oddball dark pop star. Regardless, this album is likely to be divisive, but put me fully on team Solar Power . Songs of Note : "Solar Power," "Stoned at the Nail Salon," "Secrets From a Girl (Who's Seen It All)" Artist : Warp Trio Album : Warp Trio's Pandemic Disco Fantasy Quick Thoughts : I'm pretty sure this contemporary classical act hit my radar thanks to the amount of Attacca Quartet I've been listening to, and this is apparently a concept record that goes along with a multimedia effort. The music, for what it...

Liverpool's Stores have released one of the most 90's singles of this decade. "Bones" has this rollicking slacker vibe to it. The song is a burst of fun that seems to be missing in most of today's slacker rock and evokes artists like Beck and Pavement. It's filled with fuzzy guitar riffs that feel like the kind of alt-power pop bands like Superdrag and Local H used to bring us. It's an undeniably catchy rocker that ends up imploding unexpectedly/expectedly in the best possible way at the very end of the song. You can listen to "Bones" below. The single is currently available digitally via Eggy Records over at Bandcamp . For more on Stores, check out the band on Instagram . bones by stores

Matt Pond PA recently got the rights back to their 2015 album The State of Gold. They set about re-recording the album and re-sequencing it. The first redone song available to listen to is "Spaceland." How is the new version different from the original? I'm honestly not sure since the original The State of Gold  seems to be pretty much scrubbed offline. The new version features Matthew Caws and Louie Lino of Nada Surf and is a complete expression of pure joy. It's an indie rock/pop anthem that is endlessly upbeat and positive. It's an absolutely gorgeous song that sounds exactly like Matt Pond PA and Nada Surf joined forces to craft an epic. In an email newsletter to fans, Matt Pond explains the song and new version: "'Spaceland' was originally the last song on The State of Gold. It's a hazy vision of the first club we played on the west coast, a place where dreams and reality collide — beautiful palm trees overlooking littered sidewalks. We sat o...

Photo by Dustin Cohen A lot is being made of the fact that Buffalo Nichols is Fat Possum Records' first solo blues artist in over twenty years. The Houston born but Milwaukee raised artist has this amazing brand of blues. His latest single, "Back On Top," showcases his vocals and guitar playing. Vocally, Nichols is truly a unique gem. He has this soft and ultra smooth singing voice. It's really pleasant. As in, he could easily be winning nationally televised singing reality shows. But, then we get his guitar playing. In direct opposition to his voice, Nichols is playing a feedback heavy blues guitar. This vintage guitar sound mixed with his smooth, soulful vocals creates this amazing blend you're going to adore. You can listen to "Back On Top" below. Buffalo Nichols' self-titled debut album is due out October 15 on Fat Possum Records. You can pre-order/pre-save a copy here . For more on Buffalo Nichols, check out the artist's website . Upcoming t...