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, and live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
95COROLLA – LOUDER / FASTER / SADDER
95COROLLA capped off 2024 with a rerecorded version of their February ’24 EP The Fast Loud Sad EP. As the title suggests, it’s a cleaner, bigger-sounding take on those songs, and the new closer “IRISH GOODBYE” is an excellent endcap to a year that also saw the release of a wonderful full-length debut.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Pygmy I’m cricket – can’t swim
On their new EP can’t swim, Pygmy I’m cricket mix mathy emo technicality with an effortless melodicism that helps these six tracks go down much easier than similar works by their peers. These songs are mellow and lush, and the airy guitar work on closer “GHOST DOG” would make The Edge proud.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Fust – “Spangled”
Boat Songs by MJ Lenderman catapulted Dear Life Records into alt-country stardom. Fust paints similar vignettes of Appalachia on “Spangled,” the lead single from their upcoming Big Ugly, out in March through Dear Life. Aaron Dowdy’s explosive voice hangs heavy with sorrow as he reckons with the skeleton of a small town. Beer-fueled memories persist long after the shoddy structures that housed them have been demolished. Dowdy ruminates on characters and places from his past with the vacant gloom: “that used to be a Blockbuster.” How do you preserve your history and nourish the future when these physical spaces and tight communities no longer exist? Fust marks the next in a collective of artists who preserve, relay, and reconcile with the complexities of Southern life.
Giliann Karon | @lethalrejection
Altersense – Just Fine
With their debut LP Just Fine, Altersense have perfected guitar pop. Every song on here feels like it could be a hit, and in a better world they all would be. Tracks like “Get By” and “Glimpses” are pop rock gold, and when they let the guitars rip a bit more, as on opener “Runaway” or at the end of “Broken,” it’s just as captivating.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Head North – “evaporated”
At long last, Head North has returned. The band’s been teasing new material for years, and we got a taste back in 2019 with the excellent “Rhodora,” but with “evaporated,” things seem to be moving forward; they said this would be the third track on an upcoming release. If the full thing’s as good as “evaporated,” we’re really in for something special; this song’s exactly the sort of off-kilter, spacious indie rock did so well on The Last Living Man Ever Alive in the History of the World, and the second half of the song, titled “i’ve never found my voice,” takes the band into darker, sparser territory.
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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