Sharing the sharing.
New Orleans’ Trampoline Team beat your eardrums to a pulp on their sophomore, self-titled LP. Their razor-sharp guitar licks, pummeling drums and wicked fast, chugging bass lines are on point and in your face from start to finish.
Give the burner “Must Be Nice” (below) a spin for a quick taste – it’s a good one.
Trampoline Team is punk rock gold. It’s out now via HoZac Records and I highly recommend it.
Vision 3D bring their grimy, punk rock A-game on their debut self-titled LP. The album cover alone should tell you this is going to be a winner (it is!). Bassist/vocalist Lulu Sabbath’s powerful vocals shine along side her chugging bass lines and the aural assault caused by Ced’s guitar work and Calamiti’s drumming. Check out the burner “Fan” below for a taste.
Vision 3D is out now, digitally, via Six Tonnes De Chair, Belly Button Records and Wake In Fright Records. It’s soon to be released on wax as well so keep your eyes peeled for that. Enjoy.
Grow Rich is the one man band project of Jakarta’s Abdur Rahim Latada. His latest EP, Frantic Semantic, is 4 tracks of heavy fuzz meets jangly guitars laid over the top of pounding drum beats, it’s like hardcore shoegaze. Check out EP opener “Bounce Back” (below) for a taste.
Frantic Semantic is available now via Abdur’s Bandcamp page, it’s definitely worth the $5. Enjoy.
St. Louis four-piece, Shady Bug, pack quite the punch on their sophomore release Lemon Lime (out now via Exploding In Sound Records). The band’s formula throughout Lemon Lime is lull you into a groove with jangly guitar melodies that float around singer/guitarist Hannah Rainey’s vocals before unexpectedly punching you in the mouth with a brass knuckled fist of blistering distortion. Each song has you waiting for that punch to happen and it’s so good when it does.
Check out “Whining” below for a taste, you’ll be glad that you did, just remember to duck. Enjoy.
Cincinnati 3-piece Leggy have been cranking out the solid gold, garage-pop/rock goods since 2014 and their brand new full length, Let Me Know Your Moon is no exception. The shredded guitar licks, chugging bass lines, pounding drums and powerful vocals that we’ve come to expect from a Leggy release are all there and better than ever. Give “Not What You Need” and “Taffy” spins below to hear for yourself.
You can pick yourself up a copy of Let Me Know Your Moon on your preferred format from Leggy’s Bandcamp page. Enjoy.
Arizona’s The
It’s time for my annual blog post…
Without further ado, my favorite albums of 2018:
Khruangbin Con Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans)
Durand Jones & the Indications self-titled (Dead Oceans)
Bodega Endless Scroll (What’s Your Rupture?)
Jean Grae & Quelle Chris Everything’s Fine (Mello Music Group)
Janelle Monae Dirty Computer (Bad Boy)
Altin Gun On (Bongo Joe)
Smokescreens Used to Yesterday (Slumberland)
Idles Joy As an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Low Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Cut Chemist Die Cut (A Stable Sound)
I encourage you to enjoy these on vinyl (link will go here as soon as I get off my butt and update the online store).
And because 2018 offered so much more music than can fit neatly in a Top 10 list, here are my 23 favorite songs of the past year…
Melbourne’s Pinch Points’ new EP Mechanical Injury has sprung me from my summer slackerdom. It’s pounding, choppy, angular, post-punk (mostly punk) goodness is as good as it gets. They aren’t reinventing the wheel, but their execution is spot on.
Mechanical Injury is one of my favorite releases of 2018. It’s so good it has had me looking into starting my own label and begging Pinch Points to let me release it on vinyl, but after learning to read, it appears I am too late. Bummer.
Mechanical Injury is available now digitally via Pinch Points’ Bandcamp page and will be released someday by Six Tonnes De Chair and Custom Made Music. Enjoy.
Portland OR quartet, Lithics, bring the heat and melt faces on their new album Mating Surfaces. Their razor-sharp, tinnitus-causing, post-punk hooks you right at the needle drop of opening track “Excuse Generator” (below) and doesn’t let go for 29 minutes, leaving you exhausted – yet begging for more.
Mating Surfaces is out now via Kill Rock Stars. Enjoy.
Philadelphia 3-piece, Droopies, are the definition of the term power-trio. Their sophomore release Responsible People is packed with in-your-face hooks as they bounce between shoegazey punk rock and jangly psych-pop, with one common denominator: fuzz and lots of it. These guys get pretty big sound for there just being three of them.
Responsible People is out now digitally via Droopies Bandcamp page and on a limited cassette release through Funny / Not Funny Records. Give “Gone Wrong” (below) a spin, then go get your hands on a copy of this bad boy. Enjoy.