Last Week’s Jams (3.17 – 3.21)
Well, after going pretty nonstop for nearly 20 years, RayRay and I had our first real Spring Break, so we took a few days off…please forgive us! That means that today you’re getting a lot of jams coming your way, new and a week old that I couldn’t ignore! But, even with our time off, Ray and I covered almost 20 new tunes…all but one included in our weekly wrap-up playlist to get your day started. There’s new Buffet Lunch, Mamalarky, Sharp Pins and more. If you want to go back and revisit the “writing,” just scroll through the site, but you’re going to have to try to keep up as the tunes are coming fast and heavy at you today!
Sure, we’ve had our eyes on SXSW as of late, but there were so many great songs coming out, we had to hustle to be sure we got to as many as possible. We covered new stuff from the Gotobeds and Reds, Pinks and Purples, plus we got to highlight longtime favorites like The High Water Marks and Exploding Flowers, just to name a few. We had some quick SXSW interviews with Cloth, Snacktime, Last Waltzon, Two Man Giant Squid and Saint Blonde, so all get a little feature loved today, along with the rest of the weekly bangers. Dive on into the collection below.
I’ll keep this simple. 
As we hope you know, we’ve been throwing an annual Austin SXSW party, highlighting bands with new work out that we’ve adored; we always throw this show with our friends at 101X Homegrown/Side One Track One. Well, since the show is less about us, and more about the music, we’ve created an easy playlist to sample some of the new work by all the artists that are giving up their free time to be part of this yearly celebration.
Even with Presidents Day offering a slow musical roll, we covered a ton of music last week, at least in our brains. There were some standout tunes from the likes of Triathalon, Now and Scrounge…but also got to hear from one of our old favorites, Pia Fraus. We started to dip our toes back into the SXSW scene, with RayRay grabbing an interview from Gold Star. Then we made sure to rep our friends in Keeled Scales, who had a big week with new Will Johnson and Emily Hines. You’ll get to hear some off the beaten path post-punk from Private Lives and Low Monroe. Speaking of the Low Monroe tune, it’s strange that the two longest tracks on the playlist are both Aussies (the other from Tropical Fuck Storm), and they’re both labeled to have an identical running time. Who knows what that’s about. Press play below.
It started off a little slow and strange, but those keeping their eye on the prize knew we’d be in for a crazy end to the week, as there were releases dropping left and right. We skipped the album cycle to mostly focus on fresh singles, though we gave nods to records that came our way by the likes of Frog, Horsegirl, JJ Sweetheart and a few more. They’ve all got some great individual tracks in this great playlist, but we’re starting you off with Lowmoon‘s new jam, which is the perfect nostalgic bit of dream pop, which then moves right into Club 8‘s most recent banger. Some longer tunes rom Echo Delay, Cross Record and Consumables are within, but we tried to balance that out with some little joys. Also, don’t forget to check out Michael Maly’s review of the recent MJ Lenderman set at Emos!
Well, the year’s fully in swing, as evidenced by the ridiculous amount of music we got to listen to, though we only managed to write about a mere 25+ tracks and albums. I’ll cop to the fact that the end of the week was the highlight, hitting with a new Lone Striker single on the same day we got The Laughing Chimes album out there. Buffet Lunch continued to flex their musicianship, while the Rishis offered a brand single from their next LP. New Tunde Adebimpe and La Securite had us on the trends, but in the end, I was just glad to hear new stuff from our friends in Seasonal Falls. What will be your favorite jam of last week?
Another year is coming to a close and as we try to survive the