If It's Too Loud...

I always love when late-year releases are great, and even moreso when they come out of nowhere and blow me away. Summit Point. is a duo from West Virginia, an amalgam of indie, dream pop, doomgaze, and the like. It's amazing: for an independent release to be produced this well, with such sure songwriting and such a pitch-perfect tone, it's rare, and the fact that Summit Point. pulls it off as well as they do is a testament to their efforts. Songs like "Victim Blaming" are raw and "Changes" reminiscent of so many classic shoegazey acts like Ringo Deathstarr. Like, this album was more than just a favorite of the year, but rekindled my love for all things hazy and heavy. This album likely doesn't hit my radar 10 years ago, and it's proof positive that the internet makes magic happen where a New England music blog can stumble upon an indie act and accidentally discover one of the best records of 2022. Summit Point. deserves to be huge, ...

Next year will see the release of a collaborative album from NEMS and Scram Jones, and the new single also features Wu-Tang Clan legend Ghostface Killa. If you're a classic Wu-Tang Clan fan, chances are you're going to get into "Don't Ever Disrespect Me." It has that classic hip hop feel while having a modern sheen, and almost a space age vibe to it. It's the kind of sound that reminds me of what people in the 1960's and 1970's thought the future (aka now) would sound like. As you probably know, modern hip hop that hearkens back to classic hip hop is kind of a sweet spot for me. I should mention that some lyrics in "Don't Ever Disrespect Me" will seem misogynistic through 2022 eyes, so keep that in mind while listening. You can listen to "Don't Ever Disrespect Me" below. Rise of the Silverback is due out in early 2023. For more on NEMS, check out his Twitter . For Scram Jones, you can also find him on Twitter .

I'm not usually one for traditional Christmas music, but when it's being done by an artist like Cuddle Magic even I can't resist it. The conservatory trained group of musicians from Brooklyn recently convened in a bathroom to record a version of the standard "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." Even though Cuddle Magic use mostly traditional folk instruments, this is a neo-folk cover of the song. This is partially due to using more modern instruments like keyboards, but even without those this would still be a non-traditional cover. In their hands, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" becomes a hauntingly beautiful and intimate song. Even if you aren't usually enamored with holiday songs that started out as hymns, you should give this one a shot. You can watch the video for Cuddle Magic's version of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" below. The song is currently available on Bandcamp . For more on Cuddle Magic, check out their website .

Connecticut's Perennial are making punk rock that seems to be catered to me. In the Midnight Hour is impossibly fast and heavy punk rock, but it doesn't have that badass, kick-your-teeth-in sound that the genre is known for. Instead, songs like "The Skeleton Dance" and "Perennial in a Haunted House" have this bizarre indie rock aesthetic. It's a little nerdy and noisy, but most of all fun. It's nearly unheard of for music to be this loud and aggressive and still be just a blast to listen to. This isn't angry loud punk... this is fun loud punk. Plus, Perennial just groove and have some of the catchiest "Yeah yeah"s and "Yeah yeah yeah"s you'll ever hear. A song like "Lauren Bacall in Blue" even has a jazz breakdown in the middle of the song's chaos. The song is twelve songs long with the longest being 2:33, and comes in at approximately twenty one minutes... it doesn't get more indie punk than that. Songs ...

It's funny how fandoms change and shift over time. Ken turned me onto Frank Turner a number of years ago, although his older stuff felt a little more raw than I preferred. While his recent output has been mixed in many regards, FTHC ends up feeling like a return to form as well as a nice combination of better production value and classic storytelling. I think what I love most about this album is how it balances emotions throughout its runtime. "Haven't Been Doing So Well" felt right on for our pandemic era, "Fatheless" a naked and brutal look at growing up with a broken family life, "A Wave Across A Bay" a pitch-perfect tribute to a friend dead from suicide. With all of these different moods and tales, a lesser musician taking them on would invariably misread the tone a bit, but Turner somehow makes it all work. It's a deft musical play and an impressive feat. This is probably my favorite Frank Turner record since Positive Songs fo...

Brooklyn's Foyer Red have released a single that is sweet and almost twee indie rock, but has far too much of an edge to ever truly be twee. "Etc" is a bouncy and happy song that has a barely concealed ferocity lying just beneath the surface. The song feels like it could explode at any second, but it just never does. It's kind of like the musical equivalent of when someone is speaking nicely to you even though you know they're steaming mad. Despite that, "Etc" is filled with lovely harmonies and guitar that makes the song fun still. Elana Riordan says of her band's new single: " My character in 'Etc' finds themselves in a dysfunctional relationship in which gender informs internal struggles of power and control.   Instead of addressing the problem they state it plainly while asking vague and broad questions about the nature of the world. Rather than seeking a new system they find ways to play into that system to ultimately get what they ...

It seems impossible to believe, but the Colleen Green and Cassie Ramone Christmas Time Spectacular show I went to at the Democracy Center in Cambridge was almost five years ago now. Luckily, we have some more Colleen Green holiday goodness this year with the release of Coco's Christmas. It's a four song EP that has that Colleen Green DIY vibe that works shockingly well for Christmas music. It's one original song and three covers. What's kind of fun is that none of the covers are the typical ones to cover, so I had to check out the credits to realize that Green is covering "Big Surprise" from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus , "I Believe in Santa Claus" from The Year Without a Santa Claus , and "Keep Christmas With You" from Sesame Street. This one is a ridiculously fun Christmas release, what else would we expect from Colleen Green? You can listen to "Christmas is for Everyone," Colleen Green's original song off Coco...

I was embarrassingly late getting into Ezra Furman. Of course, I had heard of Ezra Furman and heard of her music, but things just didn't click for me until this year. An absolutely life changing live show at Crystal Ballroom in June changed everything, and as the singles for All of Us Flames were released, I got more and more excited for the album. According to Wikipedia, Furman's musical styles are art pop, alternative pop, indie pop, and indie folk. Her music is all of those styles, but it is also just more. The songs on All of Us Flames don't really fit any specific genre. She just weaves from musical style to musical style between songs and often within the same song. This is the kind of album that feels completely unique while also feeling strangely familiar. The songs on the album have elements of indie rock, doo wop, classic rock, folk, 80's New Wave... Furman's music is truly without genre. The more time you spend with this album the more you'll be rewar...

Sarah Beth Tomberlin's debut album nearly sneaked past me in 2018, but the absolutely haunting vocals and instrumentation turned it into not only one of my favorite albums of that year, but perhaps a favorite of the last few. i don't know who needs to hear this... is the long-awaited follow-up, and it shows a singer-songwriter who appears more confident in their own abilities with an album that is positioned to best highlight those strengths. Tomberlin set herself apart with At Weddings with the looping instrumentals and ethereal vocals, but idkwntht trades mystery for what resembles more like surety; whether it be the brutal and honest self-assessment of "tap" or the relatable frustration and feelings of "happy accident," the album gives the impression that a listener is peeking through a curtain or eavesdropping from the next table over. It's a difficult mood to create, but Tomberlin does it seemingly with ease. Few albums hit me a...

In a year with so many great roots/folk records, it means that some of the best stuff out there needs to do something a little different to stand out, and Fern Maddie more than meets that expectation. Ghost Story is a full-length debut that feels stark and real in an era where it doesn't even feel like we can all agree on what "real" actually is. The effort here is one that leans into its roots in a unique way, feeling almost international in its presentation in that it feels like its from old England even though Maddie's from New England, and the result is a really gorgeous folk record with a ton going for it. Songs like "Hares on the Mountain" and "The Maid on the Shore" feel immediate and pure, and the whole record ultimately feels like it belongs. Fern Maddie deserves more praise for one of the better albums of the year, never mind one of the better folk efforts in recent times. Songs of note: "The Maid on the Shore,"...

Seattle's Megadose have created a song that is both so close to being a mainstream alt-rock song and nowhere near being mainstream. "Pigs" follows a lot of the typical alt-rock tropes, but also just goes slightly off? It's not quite quirky, but it's definitely weird. It's kind of like your favorite K Records band decided to write a big major hit song and ended up with this. Of course, that's kind of what makes "Pig" more fun than your normal indie rock song, and indie rock could use a lot more fun to it. Plus, this is just a groovy song that you're going to want to dance to, or at least do a little shimmy.  Stephen Steen says of his band's new song: " When recording 'Pig,' our main goal was to make the whole thing feel like it was constantly one too-tight corner away from going off the rails. "The song's about an actual person in my life, but I kept the lyrics intentionally ambiguous to hopefully make the listener th...

Photo by Strummer Jasson If you follow us for our folkier side, you're going to love the latest from Cat Clyde. The Canadian singer/songwriter isn't quite folk, but makes music that is folk adjacent. The press release for her latest single, "Mystic Light," refers to her music as "nature punk" and compares her to Hurray for the Riff Raff. That comparison is apt, but I'm also hearing a lot of other artists like Pony Hunt, Faye Webster, and early Molly Burch. This is modern roots music mixed with early rock and roll/doo wop. A lot of that is how much twang is in the song, from the guitar to Clyde's voice. Her voice has this great quality that leans into its twang but still has this smooth crooner's quality to it. This may be the first we've heard of Cat Clyde, but we can't wait to hear more. Cat Clyde says of her new song: “It’s a song about wanting to understand my journey and purpose. I’m exploring feelings of adriftness, asking for the my...

My love of seemingly everything L'Orange touches is well documented here at If It's Too Loud... His 2019 collaboration with Jeremiah Jae was my #2 album of that year, and this year his third album with Solemn Brigham under the name Marlowe comes in at #8 for me. Marlowe 3 is exactly what I want from hip hop in 2022. It has a vintage feel to it while still sounding modern. Once the album kicks into gear with the second track, "Past Life," you know exactly what you're getting. This is just a fun album, and Brigham has a voice and flow that is all his own. How fun is this album? There's a track called "President the Rock." While a lot of the modern hip hop I get into tends to be sparse, Marlowe 3 has a big, slick production while still not sounding like mainstream hip hop. We might not cover a ton of rap here, but Marlowe are impossible to resist. Songs of note: "Past Life," "Royal," "Light Trip," and "Godfist"

Oakland's Blues Lawyer have a very specific 90's throwback sound. Their latest single, "Chance Encounter," lies in that time period between heavier grunge bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden but before the alternative rock airwaves were overtaken by more pop focused bands like Spin Doctors and Gin Blossoms. "Chance Encounter" is along the lines of Teenage Fanclub or The Lemonheads. Blues Lawyer still have that great indie rock edge, but the song is insanely poppy at the same time. It's fuzzy guitars and killer harmonies between Rob I. Miller and Elyse Schrock. This one is a ton of fun while still maintaining an indie rock edge. You can watch the video for "Chance Encounter" below. All in Good Time is due out February 17 on Dark Entries. The album can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp . For more on Blues Lawyer, check out the band on Twitter and Instagram .

There's a lot of talk about rock being dead. The kids aren't listening to rock any more in favor of hip hop and electronic music. Since rock is supposedly dead, you'd expect jazz to be even more dead since they've been saying jazz is dead for decades longer. Apparently no one told that to the kids in attendance for Butcher Brown's show at The Sinclair in Cambridge. That was truly what was so shocking about Butcher Brown's show. The crowd was mostly people in their twenties with just a few of the typical, older jazz crowd speckled throughout. Sure, Butcher Brown aren't entirely a classic jazz band as they heavily use hip hop, funk, and soul, but they are jazz. Still, they had an audience filled with indie hipsters, hippies, ad hip hop heads. They pulled this off just by being great. Hip hop seems to be the gateway for a lot of their appeal. While Marcus Tenney stuck with playing trumpet and saxophone more than he did rapping, they used hip hop samples through...