Posted: by The Editor
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.
Cursejar – The Organizational Complex
Cursejar’s The Organizational Complex is bigger than last summer’s Framed in Sequence EP; the songs are longer, heavier, and catchier, and the band sounds far more comfortable in their skin here. They’re the latest in a wave of bands whose vision of emo is one informed by the bands of the early ’90s who rose from the ashes of hardcore, and The Organizational Complex is the band’s steadiest step yet.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
PRINCESS – WISHES FOR AN UNTIMELY DEMISE
There’s a scene Todd Haynes’ oddball Bob Dylan “biopic” I’m Not There depicting the crowd’s reaction to Dylan playing a full-band set with an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, with crowd members giving testimonials directly to the camera, using words like “betrayal.” However, the last of these testimonials is a somewhat dorky looking kid with glasses who, in an almost trancelike state, simply says, “I kind of liked getting blasted out of my skin.” I can’t think of a better way to portray my experience listening to PRINCESS’ WISHES FOR AN UNTIMELY DEMISE than that brief clip. The EP is ten minutes of brutal, unrelenting hardcore from a band that is incredibly tight musically. You really gotta check it out.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
Toledo – Popped Heart
Toledo’s balmy Popped Heart EP takes the duo’s sound into sunnier, more pop-ready territory than ever before. These songs are generally built on drum machines and synths, but they still carry the warmth that characterized early Toledo work. Imagine Hovvdy or Another Michael at a house party, and you’re close to the vibe here.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Distants – “Belly Up”
Distants has written some version of the same melodic punk song for over a decade. Its roots are in much of late ‘90s punk, in which melodies were buried beneath hoarse or gruff vocals, partially weeding out some listeners. There are bits in “Belly Up” that remind me of Small Brown Bike or even stuff from the prime FEST era, like North Lincoln. But some of the pitfalls that eventually made melodic punk become tired by the mid 2010s are avoided. There are hooks but no repeated choruses and no annoying, tired gang vocals that feel unearned. “Belly Up” is two minutes and then gets out and lets you move on with your day. I hope the full record next month sticks to that format.
Hugo Reyes | @hvreyes5
Virginity – “Midweekend” & “Swinging South”
Virginity announced their new record Bad Jazz with a pair of well-crafted, catchy singles. The foot-stomping “Midweekend” finds the band in cozy pop territory, while “Swinging South” has a bit more of an edge, but both tracks feature big singalongs and clever musical ideas that bring variety to the tunes, like dropping the guitars for the start of the second verse of “Midweekend.” Virginity’s back catalog is considerably solid, but if these two new tracks are any indication, the redundantly-titled Bad Jazz could prove to be their strongest yet.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
Greyhaven – Stereo Grief
Stereo Grief might well be the noisiest, most chaotic thing Greyhaven’s ever released, and that’s a feat. They’re still finding new ways to tinker with their southern post-hardcore formula, like the groovy, spacious bridge of “Sick and Lavish” or the way “An Inverse Self-Reflection” uses metal as a texture for shimmery alt-rock. There are very few bands doing heavy music as well as Greyhaven is, and there’s more ground covered in these twenty minutes than most of their peers pull off in double the time.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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