Sharing the sharing.
Melbourne’s Spotting will beat your ears into submission with their pounding, brain piercing, style of synth punk. Give the appropriately titled “Thumper”, from their new EP a spin below, you won’t be sorry.
Spotting’s self-titled EP is available now digitally from the band’s Bandcamp page and on wax through Aarght Records.
Oakland’s RAYS play a catchy brand of new wave/punk or “next wave” (as they like to call it), reminiscent of bands like Television, Wire and Gang of Four. These guys and gal are no copycat act either; their debut, self-titled, release (recorded by Kelley Stoltz and mastered by Mikey Young!) is eleven tracks of fresh sounding, jerky, hook-filled post-punk. Hit play on ‘Lost In A Cage’ and ‘Made of Shadows’ (streaming below), crank up the volume, and get your pogo on!
We have RAYS available on tasty yellow vinyl in the 3hive Co-op Shop! Get one before they’re gone.
20 tracks to hopefully get your springtime started off on the right foot!
1. The Gain – You Should Know (vinyl rip)
2. Thee Oh Sees – Bloody Water
3. Gang of Four – Glass
4. DiCaprio – Ectoslavia
5. Tomorrow’s Tulips – Hotel Nowhere
6. Karriem Riggins – Other Side of The Track
7. DJ Okawari – Bounce (feat. Talib Kweli)
8. Grandaddy – That’s What You Get For Gettin’ Outta Bed
9. Say Hi – Elouise
10. Gum Country – Whoa Oh
11. Nice Legs – Ashtrays
12. Ultramagnetic MC’s – Critical Beatdown
13. Oddisee – Digging Deep
14. Pilkington – All Around The Neighborhood
15. Easy Love – I Want You To Know
16. Molly Burch – Please Be Mine
17. No Vacation – Mind Field
18. Idles – Well Done
19. Elastica – Stutter
20. Damaged Bug – Bog Dash
According to Spotify, Monster Treasure has only 44 monthly listeners. That’s gotta be a typo, or glitch, or data breach, or whatever the right modern term is… All I can say is I’m happy to be #45. This Stockton, California, trio has been on repeat since I found out about their 2016 self-titled album (somewhat circuitously) by way of the UK label Leisure + District. It’s a potent sonic cocktail of punk, garage, pop, and shoegaze that manages to bounce between giddy and melancholy, rambunctious and introspective, without missing a beat. Have a listen and see if you don’t become the next monthly listener. Or better yet, plunk down a few bucks for the long-player in the Co-op Shop. You won’t regret it.
Toronto 4-piece Century Palm may wear their influences on their collective sleeves (bands like NEU! and Wire) but that doesn’t, in the least, diminish their take on angular pop/post-punk.
Their new album, Meet You, is a gold mine of tasty “post-punk/cold-wave” (I stole that from Sam) nuggets. Check out my favorite track “King of John St”, along with “Trapped Here” below.
Meet You belongs on your turntable, it’s a shoo-in for my Top 10 of 2017. I can’t stop spinning it. Enjoy!
[We have Meet You on shiny black vinyl in the 3hive Co-op Shop, while supplies last.]
Brisbane band Pious Faults play an eardrum-melting brand of hardcore punk that’s highly recommended for any fans of the early Dischord days. Their six-song, five-and-a-half-minute, self-titled cassette (out on Tenth Court Records) will pummel your ears and leave you wanting for more.
I’m a big fan of The Blind Shake, when I found out that Jim Blaha had another another band – Jim And The French Vanilla – I was all ears. Turns out, this is Jim’s 3rd release under the Jim And The French Vanilla moniker, his previous two releases were solo, acoustic efforts that were super limited and released on CDR. For this new album, Afraid of The House, Jim recruited his brother (also in Blind Shake) Mike Blaha, and together they’ve turned out a 26 minute beat down of blistering, scuzzy, garage rock goodness. Give “When You’re Down” and “Eye For An Eye” (below) a spin. Enjoy.
[We have Afraid of The House on beautiful black vinyl – in the 3hive Co-op Shop, while supplies last.]
Prolific singer/songwriter Ty Segall released his 9th full length album earlier this year, with the help of usual suspects (his live band) Emmett Kelly, Mikal Cronin and Charles Moothart playing behind him.
As on previous releases, Ty and his guitar are king, as he shreds through tracks like ‘Break A Guitar’, ‘The Only One’ and ‘Thank You Mr. K’. There is plenty of jangle, and pop on this bad boy as well, like on ‘Orange Color Queen’, included (below) for your downloading/listening pleasure – build a mixtape with it, I dare you.
This is Segall’s strongest effort to date, definitely worthy of your time. Enjoy.
[We have Ty Segall’s S/T new release – in the 3hive Co-op Shop, while supplies last.]
Ty Segall – Orange Color Queen from S/T (2017)
I spend the first part of every year going through my routine of researching music from the previous year that I’d somehow been sleeping on. 2017’s biggest wake-up so far has been Nothing Gives by London’s Slowcoaches. This blistering debut – which in my defense was released in early December – has all the right triggers if you’re nostalgic for ’90s bands like Babes in Toyland or L7: chunky hooks, start-stomp tempos, that indifferent sneer…
However, I haven’t been pining for that sound at all. So why was I so drawn in by “We’re So Heavy” when it showed up in the pole position on my Discover Weekly playlist? One superficial explanation could be the Anglophile appeal. Elastica plagiarized Wire almost note-for-note but somehow got a hall pass from me while I remember wandering off to find a snack during Babes in Toyland’s Lollapalooza set back in ’93.
The real answer – for me, at least – lies in the cloaked intimacy of singer/bassist Heather Perkins’ lyrics, which she slyly tucks between punches of fuzzed-out guitar and angsty anthemic choruses. There, Perkins cops to her anxieties, and their consequences, with a realness that is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. On “Raw Dealings” she sings, “I’ve been struggling with distance every time/You’re all out of time, you’re all out of time”. She’s indicting herself and setting herself free in the same breath. The album is full of these subtle moments that make their fierce outer trappings even more meaningful. Don’t sleep, even for a minute, on this lot.
Virginia’s You’re Jovian’s swirling, reverbed guitars and pounding drums immediately brings to mind shoegaze classics like My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver. You can get a taste below.
Their incredible 2012 Punkadelia Records release, Stereochronic, is getting reissued on cassette by Funny / Not Funny Records. It’s also available digitally on You’re Jovian’s Bandcamp page. Give these guys a try, you’ll be glad that you did.
You’re Jovian – Sentimental Doubt from Stereochronic (2012/2017)