Ben Woods Shares Hovering at Home Video
Strangely, as the summer comes, which is usually my heavy jam season, I’ve been mellowing, looking for more moving pieces, like this Ben Woods track. Ben just announced a new LP titled Dispeller, and I’m totally awe-struck by this lead single. It’s a combination of bedroom strumming and sampled noise used to structurally build the sound. There’s this slight tonal shift that gets me every time he drops it in; he’ll deliver two lines, then twist the tone into this slightly more melodic charm. Plus, every time the song builds into cacophony, it all seems to make perfect sense, only raising the bar on the modern trends of songwriting. Dispeller is out in July via Shrimper/Melted Ice Cream/Meritorio.
Another band from the hotbed of Oakland, 
In 2018, 
What does a band do when they’ve made ten album together? How do you keep the energy and creativity flowing? For Melbourne’s 
Launder‘s been lauded by tons of the heavy-hitting sites, claiming that his brand of “shoegaze” is super melodic, putting him on the radar of tons of people. Perhaps it caught the attention of DIIV‘s Zach and Colin, who helped pen the first two singles off the forthcoming Happening LP. The songs are really good, though I wouldn’t necessarily call them “shoegaze.” despite the sort of heavy-handed riff work being omni-present. Songwriter John Cudlip seems more fascinated by toying with melody, and the way you can work it in and out of heavier guitar sounds, with a hint of darkness at play too, which is where it kind of falls into that “gaze” category I reckon. I’m digging it, and interested to see how the rest of Happening shapes out; it’s release on July 15th via Ghostly International.
If you haven’t been listening to UK punks 
Feel like kicking off Friday by throwing a little fun pop punk right in your face, courtesy of Australia’s