Can’t think of a better day of the week to drop “B.I.G.” by Big Bailey (featuring Bugsy Calhoun) as it is a throwback of the highest quality. If you are, like us, not a fan of emo-hop, cloud-hop and the rest of the current sub-genres of hip-hop and long for the days when rap was real than this is the song for you. It seems odd to want to describe a hip-hop track as “charming” but fuck it, this shit is charming as hell. We are charmed. Two talented mc’s spitting rhymes over a dope old school track in the purest way possible feels not so much nostalgic as it does necessary. Turn this up, bob ya head and have faith that real hip-hop is forever.
March 30, 2022
Wordless Wednesdays
This week we keep everyone’s name out of our mouths with instrumental tracks from Aagtive, A Reason to Travel and Scott Wade. Slap that “read more” to check them out.
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March 30, 2022
The Midweekly – Hurray For The Riff Raff
The Midweekly is our column from Mike Jeffers; lead singer of Chicago punk stalwarts SCRAM, music junkie and all around righteous dude.
Snapshots and clips of detailed close-ups and wide angles, like a montage of moments, with or without context, set to some fine tunes. That’s Life On Earth, the obvious yet appropriate title of the latest record from Hurray For The Riff Raff, a New Orleans based group led by singer-songwriter Alynda Segarra, with an adventurous background that involves hobos, freight trains, and Puerto Rico. LOE is also the title track that sits in the middle of the album like a center of gravity for the rest. The minimalism of its piano and horn combo is graceful in itself, but also allows Segarra’s terrific voice and words to be prominent. This minimal production style is a theme on many songs, but on others like the big percussion, indie rock guitars, and even a bit of dark pop keeps the montage from getting repetitive. From that center there are feelings of joy and appreciation in the lyrics, but throughout the track list there is also fear, like on the opener “Wolves,” passion in “Jupiter’s Dance,” and sadness in “Precious Cargo,” a take on the struggles of immigrants. HFTRR has put together a really good one here that finds something beautiful not just in the words and notes but the spaces in between them, too.
March 29, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: Gordmin
I mean, who among us is not going at least a little batshit these days? It’s all the rage and here to provide a soundtrack to the battyness is Gordmin. “Batshit” creates a wonderfully otherworldly vibe moving from lackadaisical psych pop to spaced out exploration to frenetic bursts and back around again. The real crazy part is how natural Gordmin makes all these transitions sound, turning it into a complete journey, catchy and creative the whole way.
March 28, 2022
Week Starter – Jodie Langford
From “Radio Radio” and “Don’t Believe the Hype” to “Television, the Drug of a Nation” and “Kill Your Television” there’s a long proud tradition of artists pointing out the manipulative nature of mass media. Northern England spoken word artist Jodie Langford joins that lineage with “TV Or Not TV” a mix of tinkling piano and breakneck glitch beats that focuses on the way TV targets the young and the negative fallout of it. From the social critique and defiant lyrics to minimalist arrangement there’s a hint of Sleaford Mods here, but Langford makes this her own by spitting fast and precise and with passion.
March 28, 2022
Mike’s Monday Muse – The Hanging Stars
Hollow Heart is the fourth full-length record from London-based cosmic rockers, The Hanging Stars. It’s pedal steel paradise.
March 25, 2022
Week Ender – Grocer
Praise Jebus! The kids are getting weird again!
We get a lot of submissions and most of them fall under the current trend of “what if erectile dysfunction was a sound?” Why the majority of indie rock has decided making un-ironic easy listening yacht rock dreck is beyond us, but once more a shout out to J dawg for sending us Grocer and their track “Mountain Home.” Sludgy, noisy and hitting a bit like a less flashy Primus this song is a wild eyed return to the 90’s when oddballs could become full on rock stars and getting out there was encouraged, not something to be squashed by the algorithm. This is what the world needs, more laying down in the mud with amps turned up to 11 and less songs for an Anthropologie store playlist.
March 25, 2022
Friday 5×5
Brevity is next to levity and we keep it frothy with these brief write ups on new music from Jimmy Beach, Alex Hellcat, Retrograde Conversations, Marmalade Mountain and Sound Science after the jump.
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March 24, 2022
Thursdays With J.R. – Odd Sweetheart
Morse code and reverb-laden guitar fades into your ears as you’re gently guided into the soundscape ahead. This week my ears traveled afar with Odd Sweetheart and their track “Structures”. The full groove kicks in at around 40 seconds and you get whirlwind hi hats and thick yet well mixed bass tone. Simple yet holds the original groove the Morse code directed in. The vocals drip out of the singer’s mouth with emotion but a simplicity of singing it a thousand times. Voice is crisp and weathered, I feel the story. Imagery of rib cages being torn apart may make you think we go to distortionville, you’d be wrong. The guitar stays really clean the entire time, some overdrive, delay and as previously mentioned, reverb. It gives it a garage-indie sound that you aren’t expecting when the song starts. I appreciate the groove quite a bit, the drummer is very tight and tasteful. Bass drum and guitar in tandem as you soar through structures of the mind. Tight and short, with a neat instrumental composition to round out the ending. Don’t judge a song by its intro, you may miss a trip as good as this one!
March 24, 2022
The B-Side: Speed Control
We’re almost to the weekend so what better song to post to help us get on through the rest of working week blarghs than the upbeat and driving “Mr. Romance.” Dancing out of the frozen Yukon its Speed Control with this number that feels a bit like if The Killers traded in their Joy Division records for Superchunk ones. It’s catchy, it’s poppy yet rocking, it begs to be sung along to at the top of your lungs while driving with the windows down in places that are warmer than the Yukon.