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.
Grasser – You’re Welcome for Having Us
Asbury Park’s Grasser pull a similar trick to Cheridomingo or Microwave on You’re Welcome for Having Us, drawing on alt R&B–the kind that might be paired with a certain inexpensive beer–and mixing it in with their bouncy post-hardcore sound. Imagine if Hail the Sun’s formula was flipped, maybe. It makes for a really fun, really goofy album with endless replayability. Songs like “Suboxone” and “Teef,” paired together on the back half, do a great job of showing off the band’s sillier side while still hitting extremely hard.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Pinhead Gunpowder – “Unt”
Like many punk fans my age, Green Day was the skeleton key that opened the door to another world of music. Picking up my older brother’s copy of Dookie as a middle-schooler around the heyday of Napster and Kazaa meant Green Day was able to lead me not only to bands like Operation Ivy through the cover of “Knowledge,” but to the whole Lookout! Records crew (The Donnas, The Mr. T Experience, Ted Leo), as well as to the punk bands that were getting play on MTV at the time (your Good Charlottes and Sum 41s). However, all these years later, I hardly listen to the Green Day records I have, and if I do want some Billie Joe in my life it comes from Pinhead Gunpowder’s essentially perfect Shoot the Moon. There’s something about Pinhead Gunpowder that captures both the snark and spark of what made me love this type of music in the first place, and their new single “Unt” sounds straight from that era of punk. I surely wasn’t alone in never expecting another Pinhead Gunpowder record to come out, so the announcement of Unt is a more than welcome surprise.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
The Entire History of You – “Strings”
The new single from Columbus’s The Entire History of You, “Strings,” follows the less screamy “It’s okay, I love you,” from late June, and similarly introduces a more melodic side of the band. Although the entire thing is still delivered in a searing bellow, the guitars chime and jingle more than they pummel, and the band isn’t afraid to pull back to create some atmosphere. It’s a great tune, one fans of groups like Gatherers or Actor|Observer should be able to vibe with.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Dead to Me – “Don’t Be Mad”
The Red Scare comp reads as something from ten years ago, full of bands who were active at that time. There’s a Sludgeworth song; Chicago punk dorks like myself are stoked. The only song I care about on the comp is a new Dead to Me song. Though they were part of a strain of melodic punk in the late 2000s, I think their music holds up. Cuban Ballerina is one of the more accurate portrayals of addiction I’ve heard. “Don’t Be Mad” follows a familiar track, full of the tuneful punk they know how to write. It is hard not to try to read into the lyrics as autobiographical; if it is the last Dead to Me song, it feels like it ends in the middle of a sentence.
Hugo Reyes | @hvreyes5
Beeef – Somebody’s Favorite
A great indie rock/alt-country record’s been soundtracking my weekend after its release on Friday–Somebody’s Favorite by Beeef. The third full-length from the Boston band follows 2019’s spectacular Bull in the Shade, and here Beeef goes bigger. The songs splay out and stretch to five, six, eight minutes, and the melodies are wound up even tighter; still, it’s as breezy and jangly as anything Beeef’s ever done, and it’s a great album to play out the summer and welcome the fall.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Haunt Dog – Filbert
Haunt Dog is an emo band from Philly. You know, based on those words, whether or not you’ll like them. They play that sort of throaty, scrappy, vaguely mathy emo that defined once the scene, but on Filbert they do it extremely, extremely well. Even if, like me, you find yourself somewhat bored by the number of bands that could apply to, it’s worth giving Haunt Dog a try. I can’t help but find myself charmed by the way the band throws themselves so fully into Filbert. Something to get you thinking: Haunt Dog opening for Combat–now that’d be a show.
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 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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