Brooklyn punk trio Thick have seen a lot over their six years as a band. They’ve seen venues close, and they’ve been repeatedly tokenized by men in the music scene, so they’re not sorry who’s offended by their in-your-face punk. Last year, they signed to Epitaph Records, and their debut album, “5 Years Behind”, is finally coming out on March 6th. Expect jumpy, melodic punk where the personal is political. Samples of men using phrases like “Girl bands are really in right now” characterize “Mansplain” while the rambunctious title track perfectly depicts internal combustion: “I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed / If I didn’t let time take control.”
The band’s third EP and first release since signing to Epitaph Records, THICK bottles up the reckless energy of their live set and adds new textures to a gloriously scrappy sound they’ve labeled “girlwave.” The three-song release also reveals THICK’s particular brand of lyrical genius: calling out the stupidities of the status quo and claiming their own space apart from the masses.
THE BAND:– Kate Black, Nikki Sisti, Shari Paige
“5 Years Behind” by THICK from the album ‘5 Years Behind,’ available March 6th
The Brooklyn foursome Pom Pom Squad are fine purveyors of rough-edged indie rock. On their 2019 sophomore EP, “Ow”, lead singer Mia Berrin takes listeners along on a journey to find her best self, and that means untangling past hardships. Her often painfully vulnerable songwriting meets gnarled guitars, and this collision is demonstrated most powerfully by the EP’s slow-building climax “Again” and anthemic indie-punk highlight “Heavy Heavy.”. The Brooklyn-based four-piece — made up of frontwoman Mia Berrin, bassist Mari Alé Figeman, drummer Shelby Keller, and guitarist Alex Mercuri — has been a fixture of the city’s DIY scene since 2017.
Pom Pom Squad’s 2019 debut EP Ow also incorporated the rebel cheerleader aesthetic, with a grungy, inextricably punk sound. At the core of Pom Pom Squad is inverting the normalized conventions of what it means to be a woman, to be queer, to grapple with identity.
“Red With Love” is reminiscent of Soccer Mommy and Patience-era Mannequin Pussy, but it also holds its own. Pom Pom Squad frontwoman Mia Berrin’s wry, breathy vocals add an extra layer of charm and grit to the song, which perfectly contrasts the haute designer dresses Berrin wears in the video and the gleam of pom poms strewn around the crowd.
“A funny thing happened—after performing, writing and recording songs that are mostly about my depression for the last few years, I started to feel really really good,” Berrin says. “Which isn’t to say that I don’t still deal with the darker parts of my brain, but it posed an interesting writing challenge. ‘Red With Love’ is my first proper love song and a pretty unguarded look into my heart, my relationship anxiety, and my acceptance of my own queerness.”
POM POM SQUAD IS Mia Berrin, Mari Alé Figeman, Shelby Keller Ethan Sass
Brooklyn duo Water From Your Eyes will surprise and delight you in equal measure. Rachel Brown and Nate Amos make up this experimental pop duo, and their strange textures and song structures make pinning them down almost impossible. There’s a harshness and a lightness to almost everything they do. Their latest album, 2019’s “Somebody Else’s Song”, available via Exploding in Sound Records, is an amalgamation of acoustic pop, bombastic ambient freakouts, a capella interludes and robotic dance-pop.
“Adeleine” by Water From Your Eyes from their upcoming release, “Somebody Else’s Song” released last October 25th on Exploding in Sound Records.
The thing you won’t be able to avoid on Bambara’s latest album “Stray” is death. It’s everywhere and inescapable, abstract and personified ,perhaps the key to the whole record. Death, however, won’t be the first thing that strikes you about the group’s fourth and greatest album to date. That instead will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times
Stand out tracks like “Sing Me To The Street” and “Serafina” simply overwhelming Bambara are twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, singer/guitarist and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire – have been evolving their midnight-black noise into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut Dreamviolence. That process greatly accelerated on 2018’s Shadow On Everything, their first on New York’sWharf Cat Records and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically.
The album was rapturously received by the press, listeners and their peers. NPR called it a “mesmerising…western, gothic opus,” Bandcamp called the “horror-house rampage” “one of the year’s most gripping listens,” Shadow also garnered much acclaim on the other side of the Atlantic. Influential British 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq, dubbed them the best band of 2019’s SXSW, and Joe Talbot of the UK band IDLES said, “The best thing I heard last year was easily Bambara and their album Shadow On Everything.”
The question was, though, how to follow it? To start, the band did what they always do: they locked themselves in their windowless Brooklyn basement to write. Decisions were made early on to try and experiment with new instrumentation and song structures, even if the resulting compositions would force the band to adapt their storied live set, known for its tenacity and technical prowess. Throughout the songwriting process, the band pulled from their deep well of creative references, drawing on the likes of Leonard Cohen, Ennio Morricone, Sade, classic French noir L’Ascenseur Pour L’Echafraud, as well as Southern Gothic stalwarts Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews. Once the building blocks were set in place, they met with producer Drew Vandenberg, who mixed Shadow On Everything, in Athens, GA to record the foundation of Stray.
After recruiting friends Adam Markiewicz (The Dreebs) on violin, Sean Smith (Klavenauts) on trumpet and a crucial blend of backing vocals by Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivry-Block (Palberta), Bambara convened in a remote cabin in rural Georgia, where Reid laid down his vocals.
The finished product represents both the band’s most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Citron and Ivory-Block’s vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s commanding baritone on tracks like “Sing Me to the Street”, “Death Croons” and “Stay Cruel,” while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on “Serafina” and “Heat Lightning” and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens. While the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm. If the songs on Shadow On Everything were like chapters in a novel, then this time they’re short stories. Short stories connected by death and its effect on the characters in contact with it. “Death is what you make it” runs a lyric in “Sweat,” a line which may very well be the thread that ties these stories together.
But it would be wrong to characterize Stray as simply the sound of the graveyard. Light frequently streams through and, whether refracted through the love and longing found on songs like “Made for Me” or the fantastical nihilism on display in tracks like the anthemic “Serafina,” reveals this album to be the monumental step forward that it is. Here Bambara sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.
Their narrative-based songs may be completely out of step with what’s happening in music right now, but that leaves plenty of room for New York City outfit Bambara to shine. Their gothic rock is gripping and shadowy, and Reid Bateh unfurls lines about characters who are much the same. Their new album, Stray, follows 2018’s Shadow on Everything.
“Heat Lightning” is from the album “Stray” out on 14th February 2020 . Order your LP/CD/Special Edition LP now.
Margaret Glaspy surprised fans with three new songs on a brand new EP called “Born Yesterday”. She describes it as a bookend to her debut album Emotions And Math — the stunning, 2016 full-length that launched her career, a world tour and landed on many top 10 lists for the year, including The Fat Angel Sings.
Margaret Glaspy spoke about these new songs, how they end one chapter of her life but also lead to the next adventure. “I was on the road so much — in a bus, in the van, on the train, in the cab — over these last two years, I had these few songs that I’d written. It didn’t feel like it was really the next record. It just felt pretty intuitive to release them as what I had accomplished since [Emotions And Math], which I’m very proud of. But it is hard to write on the road.”
Born in the flatlands of Texas and raised in the jungles of South America, Jonathan Seale was dubbed “Son of Cloud” as a child by the Yukpa indigenous tribe of Venezuela. His self-titled LP, ten years in the making, explores questions related to his own family tribes – both the ones inherited and the ones created by choice.
On his debut album, Jonathan Seale, who performs under the name Son of Cloud, writes an extended ode to love. As Allen Ginsberg or Walt Whitman before him, Seale comments on the state of the world through his personal lens – but at the end of the day, the eponymous album is a romantic album. The album’s opening track “How to Love You Today” sets the scene for a record that explores both beauty and difficulty.
Son of Cloud’s self-titled debut album (released April 12th, 2019 via Mason Jar Music).
Jeanines is a compact, breezy distillation of the stripped-down essence of what indie-pop is, and has been, about. On their 16-song, under-30-minute debut album, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith remind us again that sometimes all we need are simple, heartfelt sentiments, sung sweetly to catchy melodies over minimalist guitars and drums.
Brooklyn’s Jeanines specialize in short bursts of energetic but melancholy minor-key pop. With influences that run deep into the most crucial tributaries of DIY pop — Television Personalities, Marine Girls, early Pastels, Dolly Mixture — they’ve crafted a style that is as individual as it is just plain pleasurable. Jeanines specialize in 60s-meet-80s melodies that combine with timeless guitar jangle in a way that recalls the UK’s C86/C88 era, when smart young bands crafted perfect pop gems enlivened by the inspiration of punk. Clearly, with 16 great songs included, there is a lot at work here on this standout debut album. Jeanines have been compared to such cult pop icons as Dear Nora, Black Tambourine, and more recent acts like Veronica Falls and Girl Ray, but their dark, modal melodies and pensive, philosophical lyrics ensure them a place of their own in today’s crowded but boisterously healthy DIY pop scene. Throw in a cover of the Siddeleys‘ classic “Falling Off My Feet Again” and any indie-pop fan should be besotted and besmitten.
Taken from their self-titled debut album, out now on Slumberland Records.
All 27 minutes of Patio’s debut album “Essentials” are artful and purposeful. This Brooklyn three-piece ,Alice Suh, Lindsey-Paige McCloy and Loren DiBlasi aren’t the most adroit post-punk band going today, but what they create out of sparse sounds is impressive. The satisfying contrast between DiBlasi’s pointed deadpan and McCloy’s soft vocalizing is just one reason for their intrigue. The vocal interplay between DiBlasi and McCloy on “Boy Scout” is the best example, and it also displays the full range of their lyrical charm. Lines flicker between self-deprecating or violent to wry or just plain sad. DiBlasi sings, “I just feel like I always lose / I think I’m going to go home and listen to Washer / Instead of spending any more time with you.” McCloy’s delicate vocal harmonies on “End Game” are welcome pillows of melodic pop, and DiBlasi’s punky, disconsolate grandeur on “Open” struts slowly with grace.
Inspired by classic British post-punk, the songwriting of Cate LeBon, and the close-knit Brooklyn DIY community from which the band first sprouted, Patio now release their long-awaited debut full-length Essentials, a fundamental collection of new music for 2019. Building upon the delicacy of the band’s prior work, Essentials presents fuller sounds, heightened emotions, and grander thematic complexity. Its 10 tracks are dark and introspective, yet hopeful, and often humorous—from rambling spoken word meditations to sparkling melodies and soaring riffs. Melodramatic and grotesque expressions abound, as do soft, subtle moments of quiet self-examination. Mixed by Amar Lal (Big Ups, Ovlov).
London quartet Honey Lung are one of the most promising bands of the past few years, and their recent vinyl-only EP, Memory, released on Brooklyn’s Kanine Records, is further evidence of their striking melodic intuition and incredibly moving woe. The eight-track EP, which was recorded with help from Yuck’s Max Bloom, consists of four singles and four demos that range from dejected lo-fi sketches to some of the most satisfying hook-driven rock tracks of 2019. Young adult depression, self-deprecation and the undying need for companionship fill the lines of Memory, and though post-night-out exhilaration and downcast, sleepless nights are what largely characterize this EP, Jamie Batten’s compassionate vocals and invigorating melodies are restorative. Honey Lung made their U.S. live debut at this year’s SXSW, where they also recorded an exclusive session for the blog Paste, performing two songs from Memory and an unreleased track. Following their EP, they released a new single and their best track to date, “Nothing,” which marries the off-kilter flourishes of their demos with the fierce catchiness of their singles.
Things are looking very bright for Honey Lung in 2020.
EPs that follow a larger album event—especially an album that’s already practically perfect on its own—can so often feel pointless, like excess Thanksgiving leftovers you freeze for later and ultimately decide to chuck. But Supermoon, the punchy five-song package Charly Bliss delivered in October, several months after their rock-solid sophomore effort Young Enough, feels vital and sequential, like the Brooklyn-based band were on a roll and they just couldn’t stop. These songs reasonably fit in Young Enough’s cracks. Eva Hendricks balances existentialism with nihilism on the power-pop ripper “Feed,” bemoans bygone celestial events on the title track and drops the vivid phrase “Blinding sun, demented shade / It’s easy to love you from far away” on the rocking “Slingshot.”
The EP also houses the band’s “first love song” “Heaven; a single released in 2018 between the band’s beloved 2017 debut Guppy and Young Enough, making for an apt bridge between the two. 5 Guppy-style rockers! Slingshot is gorgeous, sounds as good as the Breeders or Veruca Salt ever did!
Listen to the Supermoon EP released October 30th, 2019
The Fat Angel Sings 