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.
Pacing – “Live / Laugh / Love”
Just because Katie McTigue approaches her music with a bone-dry sense of humor doesn’t mean she can’t take it seriously. On her latest single as Pacing, her lyrics are self-deprecating and pointed, but they’re packed into a playful indie folk framework that makes them feel all the more powerful.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Cemento – “Bitter Themes”
Los Angeles post-punk band Cemento are on a winning streak with every release they put out. Their newest EP Bitter Themes/Lords Day features three new songs off an upcoming album with no set release date as of yet and the opening track sounds exactly like a lost tape from decades past. Full of grit and blistering punk zeal, “Bitter Themes” would serve as the perfect soundtrack for the looming dystopian future that constantly threatens to materialize before us.
Loan Pham | @senseofexile
Helicopter Leaves – “Cindy Jumps”
Helicopter Leaves’ debut album comes out August 25th, and the new single “Cindy Jumps” is fuzzed-up ramshackle indie rock song. It’s loud, it’s clattering, and it’s short, but it makes me excited to hear the rest of Get Stuck In when it drops next month.
Jami Fowler | @audiocurio
The Gaslight Anthem – “History Books”
The Gaslight Anthem’s “History Books” makes it apparent that their hiatus worked out in the best way possible, with the group comfortably returning to their classic cinematic world of raven-haired heartbreakers, leather jackets, and go-for-broke choruses worthy of Springsteen (who, incidentally, shows up to provide some vocals here). When Brian Fallon sings, “you just remind me of the nights of smoke and dirty jokes, darkened rooms with lonely ghosts,” as a Gaslight fan, you’re reminded of all those moments listening to them over a table of quickly multiplying empties, shouting along in venues that kept getting larger, or late at night in silence so you can savor every one of Fallon’s gravelly gut-wrenching lines. The Jersey boys are fucking back, and it’s safe to say I’ll have their upcoming record History Books on repeat this autumn.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
Turquoise – Turquoise
Chicago alt rock/shoegaze band Turquoise caught my attention earlier this year with their trio of singles, and when they surprise-released an LP last Tuesday they blew me away. The other seven tracks on Turquoise are just as good as any of the pre-release cuts. “Swing” is thick and catchy, like a cleaner take on an Ex Pilots song, and the sinuous “New Glow” might be their best song yet.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Wayside – Parallax Error // Asymmetry
The Australian alternative rock duo Wayside have returned with their first two singles “Parallax Error” and “Asymmetry” two years after their debut album made various music outlets and countless fans take notice worldwide. Heavily inspired by American bands that defined the 2010s alternative rock/post-hardcore sound, Wayside careens from a darkly moody atmosphere to emotionally high melodies in “Parallax Error” that are all the more moving with Thomas Davenport’s ethereal vocals and Josh Ehmer’s powerful riffs. The accompanying video for “Parallax Error” resembles an old ’90s music video with cuts of the band playing live in a room illuminated by soft flickering lights that quicken with the pace of the song as if alluding to a spark of a memory that’s threatening to be lost to the dark. “Asymmetry” follows the aftermath of “Parallax Error” and delivers a more melodic and dreamy atmosphere imbued with melancholy and takes on the feeling of being trapped in a repeating cycle. With these two singles, Wayside intuitively and effectively evoke the aggressively energetic components from prior artists while leaning into songwriting that feels both tragic and sentimental.
Loan Pham | @senseofexile
Tan Cologne – “Visitation”
Tan Cologne’s new single is dreamy, spacey, and ethereal. “Visitation,” according to the band, was inspired by “communications with otherworldly beings through envisioning crossing into unknown dimensions where other light beings teach and share through ancient ways. We wrote the song examining the experience of borderlands and the eternal exchange of pathways.” If this is the kind of music interdimensional beings listen to, they have really good taste!
Jami Fowler | @audiocurio
Spirit Night – “So Long”
With its wonderful mix of guitars that take turns sticking out in the mix, and lyrics reflecting on a life of anxiety, Spirit Night’s “So Long” is pure Adventureland soundtrack-core (I mean this as the highest compliment). Lines like “But now it’s still the same / Is history to blame / Or chemicals in my brain? / Well, I’ve tried to fix them” stand out, and the melodies all hit perfectly, but it’s the emphatic drum fills that bookend the killer chorus of “Never thought I’d be sad so long / Never thought it’d be bad so long / But I guess I was / But I guess I was wrong” that really propel “So Long” to another level.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
Sparing – “Static at the End”
On their last release No Room Left to Grow, North Carolina’s Sparing embraced post-hardcore as a counterpoint to their sugary pop-punk. “Static at the End,” their latest single, goes back to their earlier style, drawing on Drive-Thru era pop-punk to reflect on growing up and becoming a parent.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week our editor Lindsy Carrasquillo compiles a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays on Twitter 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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