This is fine.
Unless you are living under some sort of large rock, you should be fully aware that Levitation Festival started last night in the ATX. We saw many of you out and about and look forward to more moments of tunes and fun as the weekend progresses. If you’re still looking for some recommendation this weekend, we’ve got one last getting to know you interview from Brooklyn based Hello Mary. Be sure to hit the jump for interview, tunes, and set times.
Brooklyn outfit Snailosaur keep forging ahead, brandishing their love for heralded indie rock sounds, filtered through their distinctive vocal work and phenomenal drum section. When listening, you get hints of Berman or Mascis or Callahan, though done up with a bit of an amphetamine rush, setting up the two new tunes to rip through your speakers with a wall of noise. While they offer up the Dinosaur Jr-esque “Nature”, they turn it into a more pensive piece on “Kaleidoscopic Mind,” settling into a Western ballad that carefully frays the edge between Americana and indie rock. Both tunes rip, so enjoy them both below!
Brooklyn based artist Tim Lapping has really been striking a chord with my lately with his new tunes under his recording moniker Casual Male. Dare I say, it might just be some of my favorite music from the entirety of summer 2024. Acting as a sort of close out for summer to me is this new tune about that familiar vehicle many of us used to learn our driving craft on “Hondo Civic.” This really plays into that late summer driving, very Americana feel of freedom, open roads, and a sense of total opportunity. Check it out below.
Casual Male will be releasing a self-titled, debut album on October 4th.
Tim Lappin is a Brooklyn based artist who has been recording tunes for the last few years under the moniker Casual Male. His tunes have a very New York, driving garage rock vibe to them with some hints of Americana and Bruce in there. This new track “Half Cut” sort of embodies all of those sounds as one has the sudden urge to get moving and maybe venture outdoors while enjoying the song. Check it out below.
Casual Male will be releasing a self-titled debut LP on October 4th.
After releasing their debut, Angels Forever, Barcode Angels got right back to work on new music, some of which I’m happy to kick off for you today. Crips cymbals and throbbing bass grooves drive the song from the instant you press play, with the lyrical content coming in frantically, almost as if they’re chasing down the beat. The verses are the perfect, as the bits in between are where the melodic center of the song sweetens the pot, particularly when you get to the back half of the tune where backing vocals intertwine in this shimmering morning pop jam. You can grab this off their new Self Checkout EP.
Brooklyn’s Colatura return with their first piece of music since 2022 album, And Then I’ll Be Happy; it hits the perfect summer sentiment, at least when you’re looking at the sonics. Guitars shimmer and and shine throughout the background, building up this sort of mirage that one might find upon the ocean waters at midday. Lyrically, the song seems to have the narrator settling on being unhappy in a sense, preferring to stay inside when it’s the outside world that consistently seems to bring them down. Summer ripper with a sad sentiment spun into sugary pop for your enjoyment.
 
Sometimes the nostalgia bug can hit us all from time to time, and that’s the feeling I get when I listen to “Little Splinters” from Brooklyn based outfit OK Cowgirl. The track gives off a strong, late 90s alt-rock vibe with the distorted, power chord driven guitar and steady drum beat. Of course the vocals from Leah Lavigne provide an additional emotional force to be reckoned with throughout. Check it out and you’re welcome.
A debut LP from OK Cowgirl entitled Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut is due out August 16th via Easy Does it Records.
Brooklyn based outfit Slow Fiction made a strong impression on me right around this time last year with the release of their debut EP paired with some stellar SXSW performances last March. While band activity and news was limited since the spring, you had to think it meant they were hard at work on new material during the quiet period. Sure enough, news just came through that Slow Fiction have signed to the London based label So Young Records and will be releasing a follow up EP sometime this year. As we wait for a release date on the EP, the band has dropped this new single called “Apollo,” which is sure to wet your appetite for new material. It has a Strokes style NYC inspiration and can groove with the best of them while still having that haunting Slow Fiction sound.
Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming EP as it comes in.
New York City based indie label Fire Talk has long been one of our favorite sources for new and upcoming bands both in the NYC area and throughout the country. Over the last year or so, the label has been dropping a ton of new and unreleased tracks from bands not necessarily on their main outlet via the imprint Open Tab. You can spend your day checking out all those tunes, but also put some heavy focus on these two new ones from the Brooklyn based band OMAT. Both have a heavier focus with a sort of post-grunge inspiration and straight badass vocals from leading lady Dharma Ramirez. Dig it.
Brooklyn based group snailosaur hit our radar back in April with the release of their debut self-titled EP. Since then, we haven’t heard much from the brotherly duo until today with the release of yet another stunner with this new single called “Apartment Boxes (nyc poem).” This one hits me as a tune with a very intricate and deliberate instrumentation similar to a band like The National paired with the deepest of deep vocals akin to someone like Bill Callahan. It comes across as something immediately familiar, but also unique to the band and their layered sound.
