Quick Hits: Week of 2020-07-07
Quick Hits from The Discover Tab is an on-going capsule-reviews series which covers music I’m currently listening to - short, and to the point, with choice cuts outlined and other notable information for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
Got an album you’d like to recommend? You can now comment on this entry below, or contact me on Twitter! Other than that, here’s some reviews y’all!
Kyanite by Positive No (Little Black Cloud Records)
Earlier in the year, I was making a playlist about emo in the year 1994 and in doing so stumbled upon Dahlia Seed (in particular, their album Valentine Kid’s Litter.) I devoured all three of their records and loved them all in that “how am I getting to these records so late?!?!” kind of way. Highly recommend you check them out.
Fast-forward to yesterday when Spotify’s “Top Recommendations For You” section populated Positive No’s Kyanite in front of me. I liked it immediately, and soon realized Tracy Wilson of Dahlia Seed is a member! Positive No is like the meeting place of everything I love about guitar-rock, post-punk, indie-pop, and more just colliding together in a wonderful explosion. Will be spending a lot of time with this record, I’m sure.
If you didn’t know, Tracy runs a great music newsletter called Turntable Report, which brings me to…
Choice Cuts: Elevator Up / Elevator Down, Non, Animalia
Notes: This also continues my “everything J. Robbins mixes will be something I love” theory.
Create A Place by Mr. Wrong (Water Wing Records)
…this album from Mr. Wrong, which came on my radar thanks to the aforementioned Turntable Report. It’s nine songs, none longer than about two-and-a-half minutes and not a second is spared. Scrappy, attitude-laden post-punk-rock that feels like they’re going to barrel out of control at any moment - and yet, they don’t.
Choice Cuts: Overstimulation, Nuclear Generation, White Male Teacher
Notes: User review from Bandcamp: “If Devo conceived a child with The B-52s it would sound something like this.”
Halo Meadows EP by Taken By Savages (Self-Released)
Annie Choi & Joe Ziemba are back after recording an original vintage-synth-adorned soundtrack for the previously unreleased shot-on-video feature film (Jungle Trap.) I was a big fan of their 2016 album Sleepaway Cramp and these three songs are really hitting the spot - opener “Don’t Get Too Excited” bumps along with clicks and clacks over droning synths and one seriously catchy hook before a melodic lead-lick seals the deal.
Where their previous album was more of a drums-and-bass duo kind of deal, their time scoring Jungle Trap has influenced these three songs for sure. What they’ve got now is a near-perfect mix of organic and vintage vibes.
Choice Cuts: Don’t Get Too Excited
Notes: Did you know Joe Z. was not only one-half of the duo The Like Young and a member of seminal indie-pop act Wolfie, but also runs AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) and helps preserve hard-to-find and sought-after cult films? Thanks Joe!
Goodbye Guitar by We Versus The Shark (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
This was a real surprise for me, having not really thought much about We Versus The Shark since it seemed like they had all but disbanded after 2008’s Dirty Versions. Their debut album Ruin Everything! was the kind of album that lit the blogosphere on fire, combining Dischord-esque noise-rock with dancable indie-rock, disco-punk and pop-hooks. They were the kind of band who stuffed their opening track (“You Don’t Have To Kick It”) with enough licks and hooks for a whole other record because why not?!*
Goodbye Guitar is the result of years of tinkering - their bandcamp says they started thinking about putting together new and old material around 2015 - and it shows, because after the first three or four tracks of my initial listen I was about ready to proclaim it one of the best of the year. It’s everything that made their scrappy debut great, refined and updated for 2020 - still buzzing, still noisy, still dancable, and still completely unpredictable.
Choice Cuts: No Negative Space Rules Forever, In Reverse, Let The Wrong One In
Notes: Between 2008 and 2020, guitarist/vocalist Samantha Paulsen performed with surf-rock greats Man… Or Astroman? and also got a nursing degree! Hell yea.
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget: