First Listen: New Releases for 4 February

Artist: Brimheim
Album: can't hate myself into a different shape
Quick Thoughts: Brimheim came as a surprise to me this week. It's an interesting listen rhhat leans in fairly hard into the lower-fi alt-rock territory, but then you get songs like the title track or "hey amanda" and you realize quickly how special this is. On a whole, I really enjoyed this listen, and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
Songs of Note: "can't hate myself into a different shape," "baleen feeder," "hey amanda," "hurting me for fun"

Artist: Thank
Album: Thoughtless Cruelty
Quick Thoughts: In some ways, this is sort of a loud, brash Idles. It's angsty and angry (post?) punk music and I found myself loving it over and over through its entire runtime. I get that this won't be for everyone, and that's fine, but if you're willing to branch out a little bit, there is a lot here to enjoy.
Songs of Note: "Dread," "Plausible Deniability"

Artist: The High Water Marks
Album: Proclaimer of Things
Quick Thoughts: I did not have "The High Water Marks new album" on my 2022 bingo card, but this offshoot Elephant Six act (led by former Apples in Stereo drummer Hilarie Sidney) is a great slice of indie pop. I actually saw them open for the Apples in Stereo at TT the Bears in happier times and found them to be a fun and charming act, and this album has plenty of retro-style tunes that scratch that itch the E6 crew did for me so often.
Songs of Note: "Fantastic Machine," "Jenny," "Fingers and Trees are Only Temporary"

Artist: yeule
Album: Glitch Princess
Quick Thoughts: Highlighting this one as a really interesting hyperpop-adjacent listen. I liked a lot of this, and when it's working it really, really works well. If you're into the glitchier side of electronic music, this is absolutely worth giving some time.
Songs of Note: "Electric," "Fragments," "Too Dead Inside," "Mandy"

Artist: Mitski
Album: Laurel Hell
Quick Thoughts: Mitski's latest is a departure in many regards. It's very synthy and plays like an 80s pop record in a lot of ways, but is also filled with songs like "The Only Heartbreaker" that harken back to some of her more well-loved tunes. This one had to grow on me a bit, but an album I was a little cold on to start ended up something I loved by the end. Don't skip out on this.
Songs of Note: "The Only Heartbreaker," "Love Me More," "Should've Been Me"

Artist: Erin Rae
Album: Lighten Up
Quick Thoughts: We like Erin Rae a lot here, and her new album brings a lot of the familiar old-style folk/roots to the forefront. I wish I had more to say about this, but it is a perfect listen in a late-winter setting and is something folk fans shouldn't miss.
Songs of Note: "Candy & Curry," "Can't See Stars," "California Belongs to You," "Modern Woman"

Of note:

* Hollis Brown - In the Aftermath (A full-album cover of Aftermath by The Rolling Stones.)
* Owen FitzGerald - A deep clean you can count on! (Some fun roots moments here.)
* Marissa Nadler - The Path of the Clouds (Strangely upbeat for her.)
* The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Summer at Land's End
* Bitch - Bitchcraft
* Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
* A Place to Bury Strangers - See Through You
* Divided Heaven - Oblivion
* Ravagers - Badlands
* Cate Le Bon - Pompeii
* MOTHERMARY - I Am Your God

EPs:

* Softcult - Year of the Snake (Don't sleep on this one.)
* Josienne Clarke - I Promised You Light
* Willow Kayne - Playground Antics
* CHAI - WINK TOGETHER
* Real Bad Man and Smoke DZA - Mood Swings
* Sofia Bolt - Soft Like a Peach
* The Royal Arctic Institute - From Catnap to Coma
* Sebastien Tellier - Symphonic

Live albums/Compilations/Reissues:

* Haiku Hands - Haiku Hands
* K.Flay - Inside Voices / Outside Voices

Also out:

* Outcalls - Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
* Animal Collective - Time Skiffs

Caroline Romano - "Panic Attack"

Photo by Justin Key

Out of the two of us here at If It's Too Loud..., I'm hardly the lover of pop. That's starting to change, and I'm slowly admitting to liking some of the more pop oriented music out there. My latest discovery is Nashville's Caroline Romano. At just twenty years old, Romano has crafted this wonderful song "Panic Attack" that's only really pop because... I guess what else would it be? It's a two and a half minute song about having a panic attack that focuses mostly on Romano's vocals with some quite sparse instrumentation. It's really just light guitar, strings, and some other occasional instruments. It's a gorgeously lush song despite it's sparseness, and some of the most intriguing alt-pop I've heard in a long time.

Caroline Romano says of her new single:

“I wrote “Panic Attack' in a parked car after one of the worst panic attacks I’ve ever experienced. I had just gotten off the phone with my mom, frantic because I didn’t know what to do or how to help myself. The only thing I knew to do was to write it all down. It’s still not something I can fully put into words, but writing this song helped pull me out of my own head. I’m an incredibly anxious person and I’ve struggled with my mental health for as long as I can remember, which is why it felt so important to spotlight ‘Panic Attack’ as a single. The last line of the song is, ‘I think I’m gonna be okay,’ because I truly believe that— I believe it for myself and for anyone listening. We’re going to be more than okay.”

You can listen to "Panic Attack" below. Oddities and Prodigies is due out February 25. For more on Caroline Romano, check out the artist's website.

Sleepyhead - "Some"

Sleepyhead are one of those bands that have been around forever that I seem to rediscover every few years. The trio formed in New York in 1989 and are now Boston based. They have an album coming out soon (only their fifth or sixth), and have released the first single, "Some." It's a mellow indie rocker sung by Rachael McNally. "Some" is the kind of song that you would have fallen in love with in the mid-90's. It's far more pop than any of us would have admitted back then, but can admit to now. Not that this is a top 40 pop song. "Some" is a mellow indie rock ballad, and the best possible kind of love song.

You can listen to "Some" below. It comes with a B-side of "Without U." and can be downloaded via Bandcamp. For more on Sleepyhead, check out the artist's website. Sleepyhead is playing this Saturday (Febraury 12) at Lilypad in Cambridge, MA with The Royal Arctic Institute and Chris Brokaw.

NOVA ONE Covers Robyn

NOVA ONE just released a cover of Robyn's 2010 song "Dancing on My Own." This one goes into the completely reimagined covers side of things. While the original is the type of dance music that was huge in 2010, NOVA ONE's version sounds much more like NOVA ONE. It's a dreamy, lo-fi cover much more chilled out and atmospheric than a club jam. Unless you're very familiar with Robyn's work or read that this was a cover song, you'd assume this was a NOVA ONE original. 

You can listen to NOVA ONE's version of "Dancing on My Own" below. The song is available now via Bandcamp with all proceeds going to Roz Raskin's friend Martha's ongoing treatments for ovarian cancer. For more on NOVA ONE, check out the artist's website.

Bnny - "I'm Just Fine"

Photo by Alexa Viscius; Edited by Jess Viscius

Chicago's Bnny are back with a new single to follow last year's excellent album Everything. "I'm Just Fine" is going to remind listeners of a certain age of a band like Mazzy Star, but this is Mazzy Star if you remove anything uplifting or cheery. "I'm Just Fine" is a gut wrenchingly painful song. It may have the dreamlike quality you'd expect, but the entire time you're listening you'll just be expecting it to erupt into a nightmare. That being said, this is a gorgeous song, and we can't recommend it enough. Sometimes art isn't about joy, and this is one of those cases where you can find beauty in heartache.

Frontwoman Jess Viscius says of the new song:

"’I’m Just Fine’ is about the sensation of time moving slowly when you are missing someone. It’s about attempting to deny that you are heartbroken in order to protect yourself."

You can watch the video for "I'm Just Fine" below. The song is available as a single via Fire Talk Records. For more on Bnny, check out the artist's website. Upcoming tour dates are below the video.

Fri. Feb. 18 - Sioux Falls, SD @ Total Drag Records
Mon. Feb. 21 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza*
Tue. Feb. 22 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir *
Thu. Feb. 24 - San Francisco, CA @ Noise Pop Festival
Sun. Feb. 27 - San Diego, CA @ Whistle Drop
Wed. Mar. 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
Thu. Mar. 4 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Sun. Mar 7 - Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Thu. Apr. 28 - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar ^
Fri. Apr. 29 - Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel ^
Sat. Apr. 30 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line ^
Sun. May 1 - Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo ^
Tue. May 3 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^
Wed. May 4 - Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch ^
Thu. May 5 - Toronto, ON @ Great Hall ^
 
* supporting Ian Sweet
^ supporting Molly Burch

Catcher - "Behind a Bleeding Heart"

Photo by Kevin Allen

Catcher is a band that will demand your attention. The New York City based six piece have this wonderfully jangly and noisy take on post punk. Their latest single, "Behind a Bleeding Heart," is a great example of that. While a lot of NYC based post punk these days tends to be of the upbeat, dance friendly variety, "Behind a Bleeding Heart" is discordant and noisy. This is putting the punk back in noise punk and adding more than enough No Wave noise. That's not to say that Catcher aren't dance friendly. This song is relatively dance friendly... in it's own little way. It's this odd little duality of pushing you away while drawing you in that creates the hypnotic swirl that is "Behind a Bleeding Heart," and why we think you're going to love this.

You can listen to "Behind a Bleeding Heart" below. The Fat of a Broken Heart is due out February 18. For more on Catcher, check out the band's website.

Maria Sanchez - "Hey Love"

We tend to love neo-soul here at If It's too Loud..., and our latest discovery is Maria Sanchez. Sanchez, also known as Groovy MS, has a unique take on soul. Her latest single, "Hey Love," has all of the elements of classic soul but with a modern sheen. But that's not really what makes "Hey Love" so unique. Sure, her vocals are stunning, but what's unique is how the music, especially the beat, doesn't all add up as smoothly as you typically get in soul. At times the beat seems to demand attention by calling out to the listener. 

Maria Sanchez says of her new song:

"Hey Love highlights the battle of ending a relationship with someone because of their endless demands to do things and meet certain expectations. The song vocalizes one's feelings of thinking that they had found the 'one,' but now they’ve decided to forget them and move on with life. It’s almost like the last time they’ll express their emotions and reminisce about times with that person before they just become a distant memory, as the song says.”

You can listen to "Hey Love" below. The song is available as a single via My Grito Industries and Soul Tune Records, and can be found over at Bandcamp. For more on Maria Sanchez, check out the artist on Facebook and  Instagram.

The Brothers Comatose featuring AJ Lee Cover Neil Young

In the past we've brought you both The Brothers Comatose and AJ Lee & Blue Summit. This time it's The Brothers Comatose joining forces with AJ Lee to cover Neil Young's classic "Harvest Moon." Both bands have a similar modern and mainstream take on roots and Americana, and "Harvest Moon" is the perfect way to showcase that sound. AJ Lee takes the lead for vocal duties, and this is a virtually perfect cover/tribute to Young. It's a little more traditional folk and roots than Young's original, but that is hardly a bad thing here. Plus, covering Neil Young is fairly topical these days.

You can watch the video for The Brothers Comatose featuring AJ Lee's take on "Harvest Moon" below. The song is currently available as a download via Bandcamp. It's part of The Brothers Comatose's new weekly video series "Ear Snacks." For more on The Brothers Comatose, check out the artist's website. Upcoming tour dates are below the video.

04 Feb  Soho Restaurant & Music Club - Santa Barbara, CA

06 Feb  Gem and Jam 2022 - Tucson, AZ

24 Feb  Wintergrass Festival 2022 - Bellevue, WA

Deer Scout - "Cowboy"

Photo by Felix Walworth

Deer Scout is the musical project of New York native Dena Miller. She was raised by two folk musicians in Yonkers, and started working on songs that would become her debut album while a freshman in college in Philadelphia. She started playing DIY shows and putting out singles on Bandcamp and cassette, and now has her debut album coming out soon. "Cowboy" has some roots in folk music, but it's not folk in any traditional sense. This is a pure bedroom, DIY style of bedroom pop meets folk. It has such a unique vibe that really sets it apart from similar artists, and has an odd unique beauty to it. If you like most of the music we bring you here, you're going to adore this.

Dena Miller says of her new song:

"'Cowboy' is based on the movie Midnight Cowboy It was written in a house in Ohio where the driveway was off a sharp bend on the highway, so if you were approaching it from the opposite side, you had to make a blind left turn into the gap in between the yellow turning arrows. It’s a song about feeling like you’re one step behind everybody else, like a small fish in a big pond, and being a little bit naive."

You can watch the video for "Cowboy" below. Woodpecker is due out April 8 on Carpark Records, and can be pre-ordered/pre-saved here. For more on Deer Scout, check out the artist's Twitter and Instagram.

Friday Freebie: MC Paul Barman & Jordan Katz - LOVECORE

Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a new EP from MC Paul Barman and Jordan Katz. For LOVECORE, Jordan Katz produces, mixes, and plays all the instruments, while MC Paul Barman provides lyrics and vocals. It fits right into Barman's catalog. It's relatively laid back and jazzy music with Barman rapping much more intensely. The vocals don't exactly fit with the music, but they do somehow perfectly. A song like "$1M/Bar" shows this off. It has an ultra-chill almost space jazz feel with Barman rapping more aggressively. "Denim Denial" is one of Barman's more spoken word songs. LOVECORE is a great new direction for an artist I've been following for almost two decades that still keeps right in his specialty.

You can listen to "Fall In Love With Yourself" below. LOVECORE is available for the "name your price" option on Bandcamp. If you do choose the free option, be sure to give MC Paul Barman a follow on Facebook.