Being a musician trying to make it in this day and age can be a discouraging process. The internet is so over saturated with countless artists trying to get their music out there that it’s easy for one’s music to slip through the cracks. I can attest to that, I’m a musician with 2 monthly listeners on Spotify. This can be disheartening, but the best thing to do is to just keep going. London musician Eaves Wilder experienced this at a very young age. Following the release of her 2023 E.P. Hookey, she considered quitting music altogether, so she stepped back and waited until she found her voice to begin making music again. Now, after a period of writer’s block and an existential crisis, Wilder has returned with her long-awaited debut album Little Miss Sunshine. This album is a prime example of why you shouldn’t rush creativity, because you can tell there was much time and effort put into it. Being more true to herself and her personal music influences, as opposed to succumbing to the pressure of making a hit, Wilder crafts a perfect amalgamation of guitar-driven Alternative Rock, Power Pop melodies, and lush vocals, and this album uncompromisingly drives us through her vulnerability, but all while maintaining a powerful feminist spirit. The track “Just Say No!” highlights the importance of setting boundaries to protect oneself from being taken advantage of, “Mountain Sized” is a self-reflective track that finds Wilder questioning her role or purpose as she tries to navigate young adulthood, and “Ropeburn” is about cutting off toxic people and re-evaluating personal relationships, which all leads to an introspective experience that can resonate with just about anyone, but if this album has an anthem that perfectly summarizes the entire record, it most certainly would be “Everybody Talks.” I haven’t heard a song that perfectly captures the feeling of wanting everyone to shut the fuck up like this one in a very long time, and in a world where people are constantly spewing out their unprovoked opinions and arguing online, this is an important track to hear. It can also be an anthem for introverts. This song takes me back to that lost feeling I had when I was a young introvert trying to navigate life in a society that favors the extroverted. Themes such as these are what makes good genuine music, and if you have the songwriting ability to back it up like Wilder has, your music will move a lot of people. Little Miss Sunshine is an astonishing debut that will resonate with many.
Nowadays a common misconception about “Post-Punk” is that it’s all dark and goth-adjacent, which reduces the genre’s artistic and experimental history of incorporating elements of Funk, Industrial, Pop and Krautrock to something that’s just dark and moody. Sure Gothic Rock derived from Post-Punk, but not all Post-Punk is Goth. Though that misconception can be frustrating for Post-Punk scholars, there are bands that still understand the assignment when it comes to continuing the artistic, intellectual and anti-commercial ethos of the beloved genre. Australian band “Station Model Violence” are one of those bands. Consisting of members of bands such as Total Control, Den, and R.M.F.C., “Station Model Violence” have crafted a fantastic debut album that harks back to 80’s Post-Punk, when the genre evolved into a more pop-oriented style often called “New Wave.” That’s right, this album is more Psychedelic Furs than Gang of Four. This album sounds like it came from a band who frequently performed at “The Batcave” in London in 1983. This album sounds like what “Zero Le Crêche” would’ve sounded like had they stayed together. Despite the band’s obvious Post-Punk influence, that influence doesn’t turn the music into a gimmick. These are tunes that also dive into psychedelia, Krautrock inspired 4/4 drum rhythms, and dark but soothing walls of sound topped with smooth as Hell saxophone. The pulsating rhythms will put you in a trance, which leads to a hypnotizing experience. Sure the band acknowledges the Post-Punk and Goth forefathers, (“Cliffs” is a dead ringer for Bauhaus’ “King Volcano”) but this is a solid album that’s entirely their own, and I feel like they’ll somehow top this record in the future.
About 4 years ago vocalist/producer Katie Alice Greer released a very forward thinking debut album that combined Art Pop, Experimental Rock, Post-Industrial and a myriad of different sounds and styles that don’t normally work together, but somehow worked on this record. This album, which is titled Barbarism, is still unlike anything I’ve heard in music before. It’s filled with Hellish and at times, dreamy soundscapes that give the listener a nightmarish experience, but all while maintaining a sense of comfort, and providing a place for those of us fearful of the direction the U.S. is heading in a place to vent. Now, 4 years later, times are even scarier, and Katie Alice Greer has released her sophomore album Perfect Woman Sound Machine, Vol. 1. This album is no less forward thinking, with its fantastic sound collages and layers, but this album is even more all over the place in the best way possible. Jumping from the grungy Babes in Toyland-esque “Unglued,” to the Trip Hop influenced tracks which wouldn’t sound out of place on a “Tricky” record, to the stellar cover of Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” this album is pure chaos, but a necessary chaos as it goes from lush and dreamy, to the soundtrack to the apocalypse as KAG conveys a myriad of emotions. Hey, people experience various emotions and the human brain is multifaceted, so why shouldn’t music reflect that? It’s impressive what sounds KAG can create, which is more experimental in nature and a massive departure from her former Post-Punk band “Priests,” who were fantastic by the way, I still listen to The Seduction of Kansas regularly. Judging from the album’s title, I’m assuming there will be a Vol. 2, and if that’s the case I cannot wait to hear it!
You can always count on a band like “Furrowed Brow” to drop music that knows no bounds, which separates themselves from any of their contemporaries, even the ones that might welcome them with open arms. Why does this work in their favor? Well, they’re uncompromisingly themselves, less worried about building their “brand,” and more focused on exploring their endless wit and inventiveness comprised of sardonicism and commentary on the absurdity of our species. Their new single “The Endless Shouting Tomorrows” delves further into what makes them so enticing without straying into monotony. In fact, this is by far the most concerned the band have sounded viewing modern living through an isolated lens, but in doing this, the band maintain that element of dark humor that’s oh so delicious to feast on. You can listen to “The Endless Shouting Tomorrows” below:
There’s a bone I’ve got to pick with major music publications. For awhile now “Rock” and its countless subgenres have been neglected by your favorite cool and contemporary music blogs and publications, and this stems from the misguided belief that “rock is dead.” Now I’m not here to scream “Rock is not dead!” like a character straight out of a Wayne’s World movie, but the negligence that plagues the modern Rock world is more problematic than you think. Rock is not the zeitgeist, and it hasn’t been for over a decade. In fact, the last movement to reach commercial success other than the short-lived Garage Rock Revival scene of the early 2000s was the Nu-Metal movement, and I’m not even going to mention how embarrassing that is. This is problematic because the countless bands in the Rock world whether it be Post-Punk, Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Punk Rock, Indie Rock etc. aren’t being pushed to the masses enough, and this failure falls on major streaming platforms and their poorly curated playlists, and most contemporary Rock stations whose heaviest or most cutting edge band they play is “Twenty One Pilots.” This unfortunately leads to less exposure. That isn’t to say Rock bands aren’t thriving in the underground. In fact, this gives countless bands the chance to garner a more devoted fan base, which will weed out the trend-hoppers, and the internet is so vast that you can discover as many bands as you want at anytime. I just would like to see more music publications providing a more in depth analysis when covering Rock bands. This has got me thinking that L.A. based duo “Broken Baby’s” new album Late Stage Optimism would have topped the charts had it been released in the 90s or early 2000s. Not that the album is derivative or overly nostalgic, but there was more of a respectful focus on Rock music in those times. However, don’t misconstrue my old man yells at cloud rant about contemporary Rock music as charity or a ploy to get you to feel sorry for Broken Baby and other bands of their like, because Broken Baby are doing just fine with their explosive, fun, thought-provoking, and infectious music. Their sophomore album Late Stage Optimism is their best work by far, and the perfect example of how to correctly combine attitude driven guitar Rock with Pop sensibilities. The Pop elements come from lead singer Amber Bollinger’s catchy as Hell vocals, and I do mean catchy. She has crafted some of the most sing-along-able choruses I’ve heard in a very long time, but along with those catchy hooks lies her sharp and witty lyrical content. These lyrics refuse to stay in one spot, they tackle important topics but the album never gets too bleak or serious, which may be a reflection on how we awkwardly approach touchy topics or try to exit certain conversations with a nervous laugh, and this might be a complete misinterpretation, but I feel like the frequent sense of humor on this album satirizes the try-hards out there who speak out against injustice but freeze up when confronted with the real deal. A track like “Madonna’s a Dick” has no business being that catchy given the fact that it’s about the unfair treatment women face in the entertainment business where they’re sexualized and faced with double standards, but if you want people to listen, sometimes you have to lure them in with straight-forward catchiness. However that sense of humor and sense of fun are far from performative, because it’s evident that the two have a natural sense of humor. Just listen to the opening track “Get the Piss Up” and you’ll know what I mean. The track is a celebration of those moments when you’re having the time of your life dancing and raging with friends. The catchiest track on the album “Manic Panic” has some clever wordplay that inspires me to write better, not to mention the line “Nada Surf with you” on the closing track “Hand Heat” still blows my mind. These multi-faceted lyrics have prompted me to over-analyze, and the journey has been frustrating and immensely enticing, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Is the track “Meaniac” about men victimizing themselves and labeling women “mean” when they don’t get what they want? Is the track “Cloud Coverage” about escapism and the many vices we use to bury vulnerability? Am I completely misinterpreting these songs? Am I really being over-analytical? All of these questions arise while the music sounds fully-fleshed out with just two primary members, and this is the result of guitarist and backing vocalist Alex Dezen’s eclectic guitar stylings. This is some of the most unique and utterly infectious guitar work I’ve heard on a record in quite a long time. I believe this album will forever remain timeless. Though it has elements of genres that will remind you of an older era, it still manages to sound modern and features topics that will remain relevant for a very long time, and who can deny the addicting personality this album offers? If there’s an album that can get the masses to pay attention to the Rock world it’s this one, and I feel like this is the step in the right direction, but don’t simply lump Broken Baby in a category, because Broken Baby are Broken Baby, and no one else.
IDLES will release their follow-up to their critically acclaimed album Ultra Mono on November 12th via “Partisan Records.” The album is titled Crawler, and is coproduced by Kenny Beats. The band have also shared a new single titled “The Beachland Ballroom,” which is a massive departure from their previous work. About the track, lead singer Joe Talbot states “It’s the most important song on the album, really, There’s so many bands that go through the small rooms and dream of making it into the big rooms. Being able to write a soul tune like this made me go, fuck , we’re at a place where we’re actually allowed to go to these big rooms and be creative and not just go through the motions and really appreciate what we’ve got. The song is sort of an allegory of feeling lost and getting through it. It’s one that I really love singing.” You can watch the music video for “The Beachland Ballroom” below:
It seems like forever ago since we last heard new music from “Parquet Courts,” and that’s because so much has happened since the release of their last album Wide Awake! You don’t need me to list everything that has happened since then, so instead of delving into the obvious, let’s take a break from the unfortunate reality that renders us divided, and talk about the exciting news that after three years the band are finally releasing their follow-up Sympathy for Life on October 22nd via “Rough Trade Records.” “Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party, Sympathy for Life is influenced by the party itself,” says member Austin Brown. As stated by the band, the album was made pre-pandemic, and the songs were created by taking long improvisations and moulding them through their own editing. The band have also shared the album’s opening track “Walking at a Downtown Pace,” which is accompanied by a music video comprised of shots documenting New York City party life. You can watch the music video for “Walking at a Downtown Pace,” as well as pre-order Sympathy for Life below:
Just like that, “Broken Baby” release one of the best love songs i’ve ever heard. Now before you roll your eyes at the term “love song,” let me assure you that the L.A. duo’s new single “Hand Heat” isn’t your typical glamorized Hollywood romanticism, nor is it a cynical look on relationships and romance, instead it is a Punk Rock love story that stays away from the “we belong together forever” cliché’s and replaces them with those real life feelings of love. You know, those moments of staying in and lying on each other on the couch while deciding what to watch next. You don’t know what the future holds, but you know this is where you want to be at this very moment. The track will appear on the band’s upcoming album Late Stage Optimism which is scheduled to be released on September 24th via the band’s own label “Poor Man Records.” You can watch the music video for “Hand Heat,” as well as pre-order the upcoming album below:
I’ve never heard the phrase “get the piss up” before, but it sounds exciting, and it sounds like a fun night of dancing terribly, getting a little too drunk, and hitting up Denny’s at 3:00 A.M. because it’s the only restaurant that’s open at that time. After a year of isolation where we were all stuck inside, much of our partying consisted of getting a little too drunk at home and watching bad reality T.V. Fortunately, Los Angeles Garage Rock duo “Broken Baby” made best of the situation and recorded a rager of a track that proves you can have a good time in any situation whether it be at a show or in your own garage. That’s right, “Get the Piss Up” is the title of the band’s new single, and it’s a fun track that offers a bit of hope, which is a fun alternative to the general consensus that we’re all doomed. You can watch the music video for “Get the Piss Up” below:
Music that delves into the endless abyss of thought provoking themes and topics our multifaceted brains are capable of conjuring up is music that isn’t too keen on escapism. As compelling as this music may be, there’s a time and place for it, and sometimes we need an escape from reality. After all, I’m pretty sure your local bar isn’t the ideal place to play songs about existentialism on the jukebox. “Who wants shots?! Now what’s the meaning of life?” Sometimes music about the spirit of music and it’s healing abilities will suffice. “Flying Rabbit” are a band whose music contains immense substance and creativity, but they can also be a band that likes to have fun, and their song “The Clap” indicates that. This is the band’s version of a dance anthem. A dance anthem that resides in their own universe. This isn’t exactly club music, it’s definitely a “Flying Rabbit” song, but it is a celebration of the primal urge to dance when we hear an infectious rhythm. When we hear music that moves us, we dance, we sing, we clap. The sounds emitted from music possesses one person and goes to another, and another, and another. It’s contagious, it spreads. I can think of another thing under the name “the clap” that spreads, but I’m not going to get into that. Sorry, I just had to say it. Is this a comical analogy? The song title did prompt me to chuckle like a kid in class whose teacher just dropped the F-bomb, but in all seriousness, this track shows the immense versatility “Flying Rabbit” have in their song writing abilities and musicianship. They can make music for all moods. Now throw on this song and clap along.
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