The Seed, The Vessel, The Roots And All, the highly anticipated full-length debut by New Pagans, finally arrived on March 19th. The Belfast band’s biting, noisy and raw brand of post-punk is inspired, striking an impressive balance between biting wit and an understated sweetness. This symmetry can be marked in single “Yellow Room,” as frontwoman Lyndsey McDougall effortlessly flows from pleasant verses into powerful, anthemic choruses and a snarling breakdown. The song lyrically takes inspiration from the iconic feminist novella The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and pulls from McDougall’s experiences feeling silenced as a new mother, advocating for an increase in parent-and-baby mental health programs in Northern Ireland.
New Pagans create music that’s not only vivid and engaging but also home to massive riffs and rare dynamics. The bands audible influences range from PJ Harvey to Sonic Youth while lyrically the band deliver protest songs, songs about women, songs about mothers and songs about conversations overheard on Belfast’s public transport systems. Their live shows are also something to behold and have just been the recipients of the best live act at The Northern Island Music Prize 2020. Music is the focus and an important vehicle for the healthy message the band promotes. New Pagans is a proud advocate for women’s rights, visibility and inclusion in the global music industry – an industry dogged with a history of stark gender inequality.
Debut album “The Seed, The Vessel, The Roots and All” out now via Big Scary Monsters.
Honey Lung have released their first new music since their recent EP “Post Modern Motorcade Music”. The Sweet and slow, ‘Room’ was the first peep from the foursome since May this year. Drawn out and emotional, ‘Room’ is a total Melon Collie era Smashing Pumpkins ode. Feedback heavy and imbued with a guitar-orchestrated sparkle, it’s a lush personal piece that’s pretty ideal for the autumn to winter transition. “’Room’ is quite an intimate, personal song that details a time in my life” frontman Jamie Batten said. “We shot a music video for the track with a friend of ours out in Berlin. The video is essentially me being edgy af for 4 minutes.”
Now the London four-piece Honey Lung have shared a new single “Oh So Real,” out now via Big Scary Monsters. It’s the follow-up to their previous track “Room,” and it also follows last year’s EP Post Modern Motorcade Music. A version of “Oh So Real” originally appeared on a vinyl-only demos and singles collection, “Memory”, which was released by Kanine Records in 2019. “Oh So Real” has both the chunky grit and gentle-hearted nature of Silversun Pickups, with gnarly, rumbling guitars acting as a segue to their sentimental chorus. Their hook-driven guitar noodling is as sharp as ever, and they even delve into a steamy Black Sabbath-esque breakdown before returning to their heartwarming selves.
Honey Lung · Jamie Batten, Harry Chambers , David Sherry, Omri Covo
“Oh So Real” released on Big Scary Monsters Released on: 2021-01-21
Delighted to welcome illuminati hotties to BSM. The new album ‘Free I.H: This Is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For’ is out next Friday – and it might just be the most fun and interesting thing you hear this year. Earlier this month, artists like Lucy Dacus, PUP and Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz shared a SoundCloud link to a self-titled album by a band called Occult Classic. With a solid black album cover and no credits to be found, buzz about the album started to swirl on social media—though that probably wouldn’t have happened if the album wasn’t so mind-numbingly good. Fans immediately began to speculate about whether this was a supergroup whose members included the indie artists tweeting the link, but a close ear would tell you that Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties is indeed on lead vocals, later spelling out her band name several times on track seven “Content / Bedtime.” It was later confirmed as a new Illuminati Hotties mixtape, and it’s a big step up from their 2018 debut Kiss Yr Frenemies. It’s bolder, punkier and has some of the best rock hooks in recent memory. On their 12 songs (with goofy, lowercase track titles) and less than half-hour run time, you’ll hear tinges of phat electro-rock, invigorating riot grrrl and delectable twee-pop.
Sarah Tudzin, your main illuminati hottie depending on your point of view, has had herself a year. Well we all have but she has had some other challenges as well in regards to getting her sophomore release out in the world. Though it was tracked locally between drummer Tim Kmet’s rehearsal space and Tudzin’s home, “FREE IH” sounds like an homage to the bands you’d catch on club stages during a sleepless, electrifying cross-country tour. It’s a product of Sarah’s wide array of influences, ranging from snotty Californian forebears Dead Kennedys and Black Flag to the innovation and bravado of Death Grips and Cardi B.
With 12 songs clocking in at 23 minutes, Free I.H. condenses the hooks and hilarity of Kiss Yr Frenemies into 90-second blasts honouring the legacy of SoCal pop-punk miniaturists ranging from the Descendents to Joyce Manor. Elsewhere, Tudzin takes advantage of the format to attempt previously inconceivable experiments in Death Grips-styled noise, an homage to Trio’s “Da Da Da,” and the label-baiting venom of Clipse circa We Got It 4 Cheap — “First I made Frenemies Made a whole lotta frenemies/ Now I owe ‘em seven stacks/ And won’t even get the circle-p,” she snarls a la Drake’s “Energy” on “Superiority Complex (Big Noise).” But its closest precedent might actually be Marvin Gaye’s infamous Here, My Dear: A 1977 divorce settlement granted Gaye’s ex-wife half the royalties from his next album, which he subsequently used to publicly air out the entire bitter affair over his least commercial music to date.
In even better news, the album FREE I.H: This Is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting Foris out now and streaming everywhere! We told you it might just be the most interesting and goddamn catchy record you hear this year – now you can enjoy this absolute gem too.
All songs written & recorded by illuminati hotties illuminati hotties is Sarah TudzinAdditional music written by Zach Bilson & Tim Kmet Band Members:
Zach Bilson – Bass, Additional Vocals, Additional Guitar on “content//bedtime”
Tim Kmet – Drums
Anna Arboles – Guitars on “melatonezone”
Sarah Tudzin – Vocals, Guitars, Percussion, Noise,
Big Scary Monsters is an independent currently label based in Oxford. releases July 17th, 2020
A welcome addition to any alt-pop lovers ears, Brighton’s indie quartet Orchards are here to bring you their full debut album – “Lovecore”
With a heavy focus on killer melodies and Lucy’s heartfelt poetic lyrical outpourings centred around her experience with loss, mental health struggles, the environment and relationships, the band explore their fusion of math pop time signatures and pop inspired vocals to produce something bigger, brighter and more ambitious than before.
Armed with a slew of bangers and ballads alike, and in a world that needs more love and light they’re a beacon of catharsis, anthems and hope.
Bringing you more fun than a fun thing that’s very fun indeed, new signings Gender Roles have recently been making waves everywhere they go and now they’re here to make even more with their new EP Lazer Rush dueout 13th April.
To get you in the mood, why not watch video for new single Gills? Created by the very talented Jared from the band, it’s ridiculously awesome!. Gender Roles have just released their incredible animated video for new single Gills! Created by the very talented Jared from the band, it’s ridiculously awesome and probably one of the best videos we’ve ever seen at BSM!
You can also check out the previous single Plastic and About Her.
If you like what you hear, you can pre-order the brand new EP on a lovely frosted with pink splatter 7″. Just do it a be a legend. via Big Scary Monsters
After you’ve done that, catch the band on an entirely FREE (£0, nada, nothing) UK tour this April. Take in a show near you!
The well welcomed sequel to the Single Mothers story. Listen to them as they continue their downward spiral of substance abuse, ego decay, and an emerging Canadian punk legacy.
It’s been three years since these Canadian punks Single Mothers released their debut album ‘Negative Qualities’ but after a bit of a wait, they’re back with a new LP!. ‘Our Pleasure’ is released through Big Scary Monsters on 16th June and comes after singer Drew Thomson spent about a year casually floating around Ontario doing a number of odd jobs. In the end though, trying to do the normal 9-5 was a bit of a grind, and he felt like he just had to get back into the studio, taking the group to Jukasa, located on the Ohsweken Native reserve about half an hour away from Hamilton.
Despite not having any songs (or even enough band members) at first though, they pieced ‘Our Pleasure’ together. Speaking of how he sees the band now, Thomson explained in a statement: “I look at Single Mothers now more as a vessel that I’m happy to be riding in, or an apartment that people come to visit and leave little things behind in […] A couple beers or a shirt, or a poster on the wall, and those things build up and either make a home or just a pile of junk. It’s up to us to decide.”
Single Mothers LP opener ‘Undercover.’ It’s less than three minutes of clashing drums, explosive riffs and Drew continuing to spit out lyrics that mash up an outsider’s perspective on society with religious banter.
Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce are radiant beings who make every minute louder, more glamorous and deeply personal as in their band PWR BTTM . The punk duo has announced the new album “Pageant”, its follow-up to 2015’s Ugly Cherries, with the outrageous first track “Big Beautiful Day.”
“There are men in every town / Who live to bring you down,” Hopkins sings. “My advice is to look incredible / As you make their lives regrettable / By being your damn self.”
This is part of PWR BTTM’s core: revel in, and shout out, your individuality, even and especially in the face of misguided masculinity. But PWR BTTM is quick to extend their sympathies to those same men, “who never had a choice but to grow up and be scared to be your friend.” Pageant comes out May 12th on Polyvinyl Records.
’‘Holy Ghost’, Modern Baseballs third album, was a change in approach. The endearing self-deprecation is still very much apparent; the lyricism is both earnest and witty thanks to Jacob Ewald and Brendan Luken’s turn of phrase. Yet the fun that Modern Baseball have used to cut through melancholy over their last two records is missing, resulting in a darker tone. It’s ironic that while this is their first album to use an external producer (Joe Reinhart), it’s the most introverted they’ve sounded.
That’s not to say the new album isn’t great, because it is really good stuff. Modern Baseball now angle their trajectory towards the more brooding bands in their scene, like The Wonder Years, which is no surprise given their Philadelphian roots. It’s less of a celebration of adversity that finds comfort in the relatable and much more an exploration of one’s own turmoil, which is compounded in the lack of interchange between vocalist Ewald and Luken. Instead they choose to split the record in half, exacerbating their isolation and commanding the record’s tone.
Official Music Video for ‘Wedding Singer’ by Modern Baseball from the album ‘HolyGhost’ released May 13th, 2016 on Run For Cover, Big Scary Monsters Records
After releasing two of last year’s most propulsive and promising EPs, Beach Slang — led by punk veteran James Alex from Philadelphia bottle up all their angst, energy, and youthful disposition into their firecracker of a debut album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. The urgency of that title speaks to the band’s all-or-nothing temperament, which shuffles between bold declarations and nostalgic self-affirmations, and tracks like “Young & Alive” and “Noisy Heaven” provide the proper ammunition to prove that these guys burn bright, catch the band at the Bodega in Nottingham in February 2016.
“Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” appears on our upcoming album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel LikeUs, out on Polyvinyl Records (North America), Moorworks (Japan), Big Scary Monsters (UK & Europe) and Cooking Vinyl (Australia & New Zealand).
“The sound of your heart is wired to break. Too fucked up to love, but too soft to hate. The hum of your lungs is my favorite thing and the air you shove out into my mouth. I’ve always felt stuck, alone or ashamed. The gutter’s too tough, the stars are too safe. I’m always that kid always out of place. I try to get found, but I’ve never known how. I’m tracing the lines on your handsome face, the scars on your arms, the shape of your veins. We are not alone. We are not mistakes. Don’t whisper now. We’re allowed to be loud.”
The Fat Angel Sings 