This is fine.
The annual SXSW conference always has up-and-coming talent on the roster; Billie Eilish was there long before she broke out to the masses. A bit of a different genre, but 18 year-old Sammy Brue is in the same spot; he’s a young musician just trying to get his name out there before his new album Crash Test Kid drops on June 12. Meet Sammy below!
Happy hump day! Hopefully you are surviving yet another work week, and your guy RayRay is here to help you with your struggle. My new friends in Dorest based rock band LEECHES have this new song called “Fuerte Ventura” which should motivate you to get through this day. It’s a hook laden, psych rock number sure to inspire some head nodding and toe tapping. Also, love the rhythm section on this one, especially the drumming technique.
Leeches are planning to release one track a month until July 3rd when they will drop the entire collection as an album called Easy. That one is coming via Leisure Records.
Back in 2018 we were constantly jamming to Happy Now, the first LP from San Francisco’s the Wild Kindness. But, news came across our desks today that the band are ready for LP2, and with that, we’ve got the album’s first single. They’ve take their jangling style and infused it with flares of Americana, such that it shares lineage with the band’s hometown sound of long ago. But, when you move into the chorus, that’s the sweet spot for the band…they up the ante on their melody, build in some fuzzier riffs and get ready to blast away filled with joyous energy. It’s a good jam, and one that appears on their new record, Faulty, which they’ll release on May 1st.
It doesn’t seem like Peel Dream Magazine are going to slow down the machine anytime soon, crafting track after track that deserves your attention. It’s strange, but the delivery of the vocals on their latest single already feels super familiar, as if we’ve been listening to the band for years; it’s buried just beneath the wash of rhythmic guitar chords and keyboard droning. I’m just fascinated by their constant collage work; things seem muddy within the confines, but they’ve added the layers so delicately that each instrument seems to ring out individually; you can be captivated by any one note and ride it until the song’s end. Agitprop Alterna is dropping on April 3rd via Slumberland Records.
If you haven’t gotten to listen to Non La‘s debut Not in Love LP, then this is your chance to correct your mistakes. It’s a refreshing pop rock record that reminds me, to a degree of the early Diet Cig stuff. It has that same infectious quality, and a simplicity that allows for the earnestness of the songwriting to sparkle in the forefront. There’s just something about no frills good old fashioned rock n’ roll, and its on full display in this video, only furthering my belief that you’re life will be infinitely better the moment you take a chance to grab the LP from Lost Sound Tapes and Kingfisher Bluez.
While Mike Lee’s always hard at work in our ATH faves Fanclub, he’s recently gone back to recording tracks where we first fell in love with him, as the songwriter behind Letting Up Despite Great Faults. This song reminds me a lot of Red Sleeping Beauty, driving these hook-laden beats into your skull; they delight upon each rhythmic pulse and each bouncing step. Lee gets help on the vocals here from fellow Austinite Socha, and that textured vocal combination is a sure-fire win in my book. No word on how much new stuff we’ll get from the project, but we’re always grateful to hear Mike working on anything.
Perhaps it’s too early in the morning for the disorienting post-punk of Manchester’s Handle, but that’s precisely why you need it this morning…get outside of yourself. The band celebrate the absence of a guitar by crafting this pulsating blend of combustible art rock; it’s a mesh of industrialized societal noise swirling about your inner ear. On their new album, the band bob and weave through political and personal, yelping and bouncing through madness as they unleash a barrage of noise meant to disrupt and rebuild. Fell free to immerse yourself in all this song, and album, has to offer; In Threes will drop on March 6th courtesy of Upset the Rhythm and Maternal Voice.
We’re really excited for Moaning to drop their new LP, Uneasy Laughter…and instead of the traditional LP release show in LA, the band have opted to spend their whole week in Austin during SXSW playing the shit out of those songs. From what we’ve heard so far, it rules…plus it never hurts to have Sub Pop in your corner. Get to know the band after the jump!
For some reason, my Tuesday feels like a Monday; the usual energy of the week hasn’t quite kicked into gear, so I needed some slightly more angsty than my typical fare…thus the latest from TONER. The Oakland outfit specialize in that noisy guitar rock at the intersection of pop sensibility and shoegaze. At times, the weight of the song feels oppressive and ominous; layered noises can be heard darting through the song’s background. But, while they stray, there’s still breadcrumbs leading back to the land of pop…and thus I can be gloomy and smile. This jam appears on the group’s new LP, Silk Road, out April 17th.
Deeper seduced me into this tune with those opening guitar lines; I don’t know what it is about it, but I was hooked, and that’s before the synth notes furthered my intoxication. It definitely set the song up for something slightly different than what the band have offered, though wholly in the vein of post-punk. The vocals have this almost suffocated feel to them, like they’re coming to us from some dampened cavern designed to trap sound. The more I listen to this track the more I marvel at the craft here; it’s very of the moment, but sound wholly unique in its presentation. This should put you on notice that the band’s new album Auto-Pain will be a stunner; drops on March 27th via Fire Talk Records.
