Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format: albums, singles, videos, live sets. Check back every other Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Tiresome – Umbra//Ursula
It’s barely been over a year since their four-song Bleeder EP, but Tiresome’s sound has sharpened tremendously since then. On their new single Umbra//Ursula, the trio returns with catchier hooks and crunchier riffs. Both songs are longer than any they’ve released up until this point, and they make every second count.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Josaleigh Pollett – “Radio Player”
Josaleigh Pollett kicked off the year with bro’s bad january, a collection of scrappy folk songs written and recorded daily throughout the month of January, but they’re upping the ante now. “Radio Player,” their new single, is a crackling five-minute upward climb, Pollett turns in a career-best vocal performance over quivering synths.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
August Fanon & billy woods – gowillog
With its mixture of nods to Stephen King movies and depictions of real-world ghoulishness, billy woods’ GOLLIWOG was already a record that could fairly be described as “horror-tinged.” gowillog, the new reimagining of that record from woods and producer August Fanon, takes that eeriness further for a perfectly timed surprise drop on Halloween. Fanon has worked with woods regularly in the past—most notably on Armand Hammer’s Rome, although he also pops up on Paraffin, Shrines, and We Buy Diabetic Test Strips—and golliwog fits comfortably alongside that work. Sparse marimbas and vibraphones, demonic low ends, pianos that sounds like they’re being punched, unnerving interjections from the strings, roaring animals, and laid-back jazz guitar are all among the ingredients Fanon stirs into his cauldron. The album comes with movie version (available for a limited time online and on VHS via Backwoodz) that will have you cycling between Rick-Dalton-pointing at the screen for all the cool movies you recognize and contemplating your complicity in the crimes of the American empire as woods hits you with “twelve billion USD hovering over the Gaza Strip / you don’t wanna know what it cost to live / what it cost to hide behind eyelids” over visuals that are certainly more horrific than any of the slasher clips.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
Ben Quad – “Very Big in Sheboygan”
Each of the singles Ben Quad has released off their upcoming LP Wisher has given us something a bit different. “It’s Just a Title” leans into the more math-influenced side of their sound, and “Painless” the heavier side. “Very Big in Sheboygan,” then, is Ben Quad at their hookiest, the synths even more exuberant than on “It’s Just a Title,” the chorus bigger than ever before. It’s a great song, a steady climb to a cathartic finish, and Wisher already has the makings of a modern classic.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Glean – Worlds Apart
Over the five years since their demo, Glean’s melodic hardcore has gotten a bit more melodic and a bit less hardcore, following the trajectory of many of the ’80s and ’90s bands whose work has been so influential on them. You could even say, by now, that they’ve become an emo band. Whatever you want to call them, it’s hard to deny that they’ve made a significant leap forward. Worlds Apart is their best work yet, perfectly marrying the bite of their first releases with a newfound tenderness.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week we compile a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.
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