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.
Spiritual Cramp – “Young Offenders”
Earlier this summer, San Francisco’s beloved punk rockers Spiritual Cramp returned with the quippy single “At My Funeral” and feel-good jam “Young Offenders” from their upcoming sophomore album Rude. True to form, the buzzy feeling Spiritual Cramp’s music evokes remains the same, but it’s perhaps most evident through the ‘80s inspired “Young Offenders” video. Lyrically serving as a love letter to the Bay Area while feeling like an ode to the band playing at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, it’s unabashedly playful and captures the band’s lively spirit well.
Loan Pham | @x_loanp
Nape Neck – “Panacea”
UK-based band Nape Neck are slowly but surely becoming one of the most consistently loud, tight, and chaotic post-punk bands in the scene. With one of their latest songs “Panacea,” they continue to brandish that title as the track darts about in stark rhythm and tangles together in a throbbing, chanted chorus. The brewing heat that snakes below its surface is full of guitars that twitch and agitate overtop new wavy double vocals. The group’s newest album The Shallowest End is out now.
Hope Ankney | @heart_vandelay
Chatterton – Tiny Empire
Last spring saw the release of Fields of This, the debut LP by Oxnard, CA, indie rock duo Chatterton. They’re back in top form of their new EP Tiny Empire, filling out the edges of their airy sound with flutes, trumpets, saxophones, marimbas, glockenspiels, and more. On “Explainin’” and “Punching Bag” they turn in some of their most wiry, loudest tracks yet, and the loose shamble of single “Blouse” makes for one of the most arresting songs of the year.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
VTB – “Help”
Last year, post-punk trio VTB released a devastatingly gorgeous album titled 91016 that I found myself returning to often. Their newest single “Help” retains the band’s darkly mesmerizing intensity and is a promising glimpse of their forthcoming EP People Died & Things Exploded.
Loan Pham | @x_loanp
Snarky Puppy – “Waves Upon Waves”
What is there to say about the two-decade-long career of genre-fluid jazz collective Snarky Puppy that hasn’t already been celebrated before? On their newest single “Waves Upon Waves,” featuring the creative jazz-pop fusion orchestra Metropole Orkfest, one hears more of the groovy, melodic sound they’ve perfected over the years with a stylistic production and the consistent wide use of the bass horn. It’s funky. It’s soulful. It’s smooth. They’re one of the coolest, most out-of-frame acts working right now.
Hope Ankney | @heart_vandelay
Bones Shredder – Morbid Little Thing
Don’t let the cover fool you. Morbid Little Thing, the debut LP from San Jose project Bones Shredder, is sunny, inviting, and warm–the penultimate cut is a deft cover of “Baby’s in Black,” and the sweetness of early Beatles is a clear touchstone here. All the other hallmarks of contemporary power pop come to mind–your Beach Boys, your Big Stars–but frontman Randy Moore’s punk background gives these songs a nice serrated edge so things never get too maudlin.
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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