If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Daniel Topete It's been almost three years since we brought you new music from Squirrel Flower, and now Ella Williams is back with a new single and an upcoming album. "Reelin" doesn't move more towards the artist's indie rock or folk sides. Instead, it resides square in the middle. It's laid back and relaxed, but with an underlying tension throughout. The song is also oddly hypnotizing. It kind of feels like it's trying to deceive you with relaxing while anxiety slowly builds up within you. This might all sound like it's an unpleasant song, but "Reelin" is truly great. It's a great re-introduction to Squirrel Flower, and we're thrilled to hear what's next. Ella Williams says of her latest single and video: “... the lyrics started as an art piece I made on an overdue Kansas Turnpike toll bill. This song is my ode to the push and pull of domesticity and unraveling. Leaving and getting reeled back in, over and over and over ...

Photo courtesy of the artist Perennial are a huge favorite of ours at If It's Too Loud..., so we couldn't be more thrilled to bring you their latest single. The Connecticut band have just released "What's New On the Beat Scene," and it continues the newer, more mod focused sound. With this one, the band throw back to their older, more art-punk sound with noisy little flourishes. But, Perennial continue to prove that art rock can be fun, and "What's New On the Beat Scene" is demanding a party to form seconds into hitting play. The song is smart, it's fun, and it's loud. Plus, the song is less than two minutes long, meaning it's over before new listeners can even figure out what is going on. Perennial says of their latest single: “'What’s New On The Beat Scene' was really fun because we went in with this very sharp Booker T. & The MGs / Rubber Soul groove and this big hooky chorus and then just started adding and subtracting to ...

Photo by Mike Vanata As we gear up for this weekend's Green River Festival, we're going to preview some of the band's earlier in the day. If you're going, you know you'll be there to see Charley Crockett, Spoon, The Beths, Kurt Vile, Geese, and Wednesday, so I'm going to make the case to show up earlier in the day to catch some up and coming bands that you'll end up loving. Angela Autumn, Sunday, Back Porch Stage, 1:10 I discovered Angela Autumn while listening to the Green River Festival Spotify playlist , and was immediately blown away. The singer-songwriter was raised in the Appalachia region of Pennsylvania and now resides in Nashville. My favorite thing about her music is how she moves between modern folk pop and a more traditional style of roots music with ease. Her voice has such a natural twang, but also a smooth, more mainstream sound to it. I'm hearing a blend of Sierra Ferrell and Madi Diaz in her musical style, and you certainly can't bea...

Oslo, Norway's The Cocktail Slippers are changing up their sound on their latest single. While the band is known for their hard rockin', glammed up garage rock, "This Town" has a more melodic and pop focused track. It's slightly too fast to be a power ballad, but it's power ballad adjacent. Despite being more tame than we're used to, this still sounds like a Cocktail Slippers song. It's still a rock song, just a more melodic and less punk version. Instead of rocking out during "This Town," you'll be more inspired to hold up your lighter. The Cocktail Slippers say of their latest single: "THIS TOWN is an ode to our residential town, Oslo, Norway. But most of all, it's a song reflecting on the different layers in any town.  You have dark streets, shady people at the same time as you have kids playing, sunshine and good vibes. THIS TOWN has a more melodic and poppy sound than the hard rocking 70's inspired songs we have released...

Photo by James J Robinson We're finally in true summer here in the Northeast, and Australia's Julia Jacklin might have just released the song of the summer. "Get Away From Me (I Think I'll Love You Soon)" shows off Jacklin's more country side, while still keeping her indie rock meets pop sound. The guitar has a wonderfully twang and warble to it, and, as always, Jacklin's vocals are irresistible. The song has a perfect upbeat yet laid back tempo that is perfect for chilling out in the heat or lightly dancing/swaying. We haven't brought you any new music from Jacklin for three years (almost to the date), and "Get Away From Me (I Think I'll Love You Soon)" is the perfect reintroduction to one of our favorites. You can watch the video for "Get Away From Me (I Think I'll Love You Soon)" below. The Gem is due out September 25 on 4AD, and is available for pre-order here . For more on Juia Jacklin, check out the artist's websit...

Photo by Sonny Loya As we gear up for this weekend's Green River Festival, we're going to preview some of the band's earlier in the day. If you're going, you know you'll be there to see Charley Crockett, Spoon, The Beths, Kurt Vile, Geese, and Wednesday, so I'm going to make the case to show up earlier in the day to catch some up and coming bands that you'll end up loving. The Animeros, Saturday, Dean's Beans Stage, 12:15 The Animeros mix bolero, psychedelic, and cumbia into a sound all their own. They were discovered by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who just happened to hear their music coming from an open hotel window. A year later they were signed to his Easy Eye Sound label, and have their debut album (produced by Auerbach) due out this year. Their music is an absolute blast, and will be the perfect way to get your energy up and your Saturday festival started. Of course, that means they're on right up against yesterday's spotlighted artist,...

DOOMBIA, the BIPOC-led, gender-queer Portland, OR band fusing cumbia and doom metal, is back with a brand new single. "¿Quién Soy Yo?"  is their noisiest single we've heard so far. The song is dark and fuzzy, only slightly lifted up by cumbia rhythms. It's also much more screamy, while still keeping everything we've loved about their previous singles intact. This one simply resides in grit, and is a killer mid-tempo song just dying to explode. It does, but more into the cumbia side of their sound than rock. DOOMBIA have one of the most unique sounds we've ever covered, all created when Latin musician Brendan Diez discovered doom while teaching guitar in 2023. You can watch the video for  "¿Quién Soy Yo?"  below. El Diablo Que Conoces is due out later this year. For more on DOOMBIA, check out the band's website .

Photo by Renee Newman Trophy Wife formed at Berklee School of Music and are now based in Brooklyn. (We try not to hold that against them too much...) Their latest single, "Paragraph," shows off every reason to love the band as much as we do. This is pure 90's style indie and alt-rock, with just the slightest traces of modern alt-pop thrown in to keep it sounding fresh. The song builds with a sense of menace lurking just beneath the surface, and slowly gets louder and more noisy as it goes on. To me it sounds like a mixture of Nirvana meets Liz Phair. McKenzie Iazzetta's vocals have never sounded more vital than on "Paragraph," pairing with a hypnotic guitar in a way you won't be able to resist.  McKenzie Iazzetta says of her band's latest single: "I was spending a lot of time on listing out all the ways I wished I was or the ways I was failing at being them.  ' Paragraph' was my way of reflecting on how ridiculous it was. ' Paragraph...

Photo by Garrett Linck As we gear up for this weekend's Green River Festival, we're going to preview some of the band's earlier in the day. If you're going, you know you'll be there to see Charley Crockett, Spoon, The Beths, Kurt Vile, Geese, and Wednesday, so I'm going to make the case to show up earlier in the day to catch some up and coming bands that you'll end up loving. Lily Seabird, Saturday, Back Porch Stage, 12:15 If you're a regular reader of ours, you know how much we love Lily Seabird. The Vermont based artist has released two of our favorite albums of the last two years (2024's Alas, and 2025's Trash Mountain ). She has this wonderful mix of traditional folk and Americana along with a more indie rock focused sound that hits us right in our musical sweet spot. Her songs are twangy and vintage while still sounding modern and fresh. Sometimes she's freak or anti-folk, others she's purely folk. Regardless of what style she's ...

Photo by Jaxon Whittington Despite how new The Linda Lindas are as a band (or perhaps because of), their sound has rapidly evolved from the viral "Racist, Sexist Boy" that introduced us to the Los Angeles quartet back in 2021. Their latest single, "Burning Out," is much more smooth and poppy than their debut. It still has an underlying punk edge, but the song feels like a warm summer day. It's also one of those songs that sounds cheery despite the subject matter of being burnt out. This is one of those songs that you won't be able to determine the genre for. It's somehow pop, emo, pop punk, indie rock, etc. all at the same time. The evolution of The Linda Lindas has been one of our favorite things in the music world over the last five years, and we can't wait to hear where they go from here. Lucia de la Garza says of the band's latest single: “‘Burning Out’ felt so simultaneously new and nostalgic for us, and I think that was super fitting for me...

In celebration of Paul McCartney's eighty-fourth birthday (... what?), Boston's Glowbox have released a cover of "Junior's Farm." The 1974 single is slightly updated in the cover version, but it keeps the power pop goodness of the original. If you love 70's power pop, Glowbox's cover (and the original) are perfect for you. Paul McCartney's 1970's solo releases are often overlooked, which can be criminal. Glowbox channel everything great about that decade into their version of "Junior's Farm," and are providing a perfect tribute to the original, and a reminder that McCartney has always been great. You can listen to Glowbox's cover of "Junior's Farm" below. On June 19, they'll be performing at The Magic Room in Norwood, MA as part of Bands on the Run: An evening of Paul McCartney Music. For more on Glowbox, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram . Junior's Farm by Glowbox

There are some bands that I don't think I'll ever get to see live. They tend to be smaller bands from other countries that I doubt will ever fully tour the states. Maybe one of those quickie tours around a massive festival where they only play New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but those always skip Boston. You can imagine my delight when I saw that Panic Shack were coming all the way from Wales and playing the tiny The Rockwell. I obviously couldn't miss it. I was wondering what Panic Shack's draw would be. I am a terrible judge of how popular artists are, so I had no idea if it would be ten people at the show or a packed house. Turns out, The Rockwell was packed tighter than I've ever seen it, with anticipation bubbling from the crowd. Panic Shack took the stage and met the energy from the crowd in an endless loop of excitement. It turns out that Panic Shack put on what might have been the best show of the year in Boston.  The energy Wednesday night was insane. P...

Photo by Charlotte Strazis Elena Buenrostro only started Starcharm last year, but the Chicago band is already receiving a huge, well deserved hype. The band's latest single, "Fake Blood," is a hypnotic and foreboding slice of indie rock. The term "haunted" gets thrown around music journalism quite a bit, but "Fake Blood" fits that term impeccably. It starts off relatively straightforward, before it devolves into an experimental, noise soundscape. Buenrostro's vocals are what keeps the song from turning into total chaos, but just barely. Musically, the song hits this strange point where even we have to agree that it's just noise... and we mean that as a compliment.  Elena Buenrostro says of her band's new single: “In short, ‘Fake Blood’ is about the horrors of dating in your twenties. ‘Fake Blood’ is a song about a relationship that resembles something close to what you want, but actually isn't at all. It's about the refusal to voice...

Photo by Kimberly Ha THAO (formerly Thao and the Get Down Stay Down) returns with her first new music in six years. "Fossils" pushes past THAO's previous releases, while still sounding exactly how we want a release from her to sound. It mixes folk, dance,a and indie into a sound that is all hers. It's a joyous song, and I can't wait to hear her perform it live in a couple of weeks at Green River Festival. "Fossils" is practically begging, if not demanding, a dance party to break out at any minute. THAO's music is a series of upbeat and affirming songs, and "Fossils" fits right in there while still transforming her sound just enough. THAO says of her latest single: “Fossils is both a red-flag warning and an encouragement,  I’m saying I can see it all, I can zoom out and up and see how I and we will have reached the end, frozen in these protective stances. The danger of underliving our lives is real, is in every isolationist choice we make. H...