Oh my god, Losers! We’ve made it to the end of the Sub Pop count-up with SP1268. And what a way to close it out with Downtown Boys covering Selena’s enduring hit “Fotos Y Recuerdos.” The song was originally recorded by Selena before being covered by The Pretenders as “Back on the Chain Gang” and taking on a life of its own. In the hands of Downtown Boys, the song becomes even more of a triumphant anthem, blazing riffs, screaming vocals, and all. Downtown Boys shared their thoughts on the song with this accompanying statement upon release:
“Fotos y recuerdos translates to photos and memories.The original singer of this version of song, Selena Quintanilla, reminds us that, while it often feels like history repeats itself, our mystic chords of memories – even memories of thoughts – become part our protection. Our most gracious fotos and recuerdos break history repeating itself by being endless. And yours can be for you and no one else.”
As Sub Pop turns 30, lets hope they get the message and make their history endless too. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
After nearly eight years as a band, New York outfit LVL UP have decided to call it quits. Later this summer the band will embark on a farewell tour but they’ve also left fans with a parting gift in the form of their final song, “Orchard.” In a recent interview with KEXP, bassist Nick Corbo described the song’s genesis:
“We were working on that song together before we started talking about stopping. When the Sub Pop record came out, we hit it really, really hard. We did a lot of work. We played a lot of shows. Then we took a long break and then ‘Orchard’ was the first song that we started putting together when we were like, ‘Oh, let's get back in the saddle! Let's demo out some new songs.’ But it's mostly a demo that we were working to try to help Mike pull that song out of his head. Before we finished it, we started talking about stopping and it sort of just became the last LVL UP song. We decided to finish it. I think it was fitting that it has a sort of like a sentimental temperature and has very sentimental sounds and it has sort of become this goodbye, ‘swan song.’ That's a romantic-ass way to talk about it. But I don't know, making that song was really fun. It was really nice that we recorded that ourselves which is like how we used to do everything.” - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Oh jeez, Sub Pop is releasing the Rick and Morty soundtrack! The Adult Swim animated show about a teen boy and his alcoholic, manic-depressive, dimension hopping grandfather has taken on a massive following in its three seasons. Now it’s getting it’s the ultimate validation with the release of original music from the show. Sub Pop has given a taste of what’s to come with the release of to singles: the theme song and “Goodbye Moonmen,” which features vocals from Sub Pop artist Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
So It Is isn’t the only album Sub Pop re-released after signing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. 2013’s That’s It is an especially notable album for the group as it was their first recordings of original material in their entire career, spanning back to 1963. Preservation Hall director Ben Jaffe produced the album alongside My Morning Jacket’s Jim James as the band ventures off into uncharted territory while still keeping true to their mission: keeping everything steeped within New Orleans jazz tradition. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
In June 2018, Sub Pop announced that they signed a new artist…well, not exactly a “new” artist. The label has welcomed the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band into the label’s roster. PHJB was founded in 1963 in New Orleans by tuba player Allan Jaffe. The band derives their name from the Preservation Hall in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a venue founded with the purpose to ensure the protection of New Orleans Jazz music. While Jaffe passed away in 1987, the band has continued on, with an ever changing lineup of new musicians and Jaffe’s son Ben Jaffe serving as the director of Preservation Hall. The band will supposedly release new material next year, but in the meantime Sub Pop has digitally released the band’s two most recent albums. The first in the count-up is 2017’s So It Is, which saw the band working with producer Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
OTW
The final SPF30 arrives with two of Sub Pop’s most reliable purveyors of noise: METZ and clipping. We’ve yet to hear clipping.’s “Club Down,” but METZ’ “Escalator Teeth” previously appeared on their 2017 LP, Strange Peace. The insane squall of “Escalator Teeth” is a mammoth and we can only imagine what clipping. has in store. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
With the third SPF30 single, we’re treated with a new song from Frankie Cosmos, “Home Is Where”, as well as the final parting gift from LVL UP. As we’ll see shortly in SP1267, the New York indie rock group recently called it quits and have released “Orchard” as the band’s final parting gift to fans. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
Seattle hip-hop visionaries Shabazz Palaces and Chad VanGaleen pair up for the second single in the SPF30 series. Both artists contribute brand new, unheard tracks: Shabazz Palaces’ “The Blue Tiger” and VanGaleen’s “Friendly Alien.” It’s hard to say without having heard these yet-to-be released songs, but with this pairing of avant garde wonders, it’s sure to be somewhere in the outer realms of space and time. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
At this weekend’s SPF 30 celebration at Alki Beach, Sub Pop is issuing a set of four 7-inch singles. Each single is limited to 1,000 pressings. If you collect all four, you can apparently put them together to make an “SPF30 poster-like image.” The first of the batch comes from the relative punk veterans of the series, Mudhoney and Hot Snakes. What does it sound like? Good question! Both of these songs are previously unreleased. My guess is that they’ll be…loud? - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
Iron & Wine’s upcoming Weed Garden EP, out Aug. 31, sees Sam Beam and co. taking care of some unfinished business. The tracks on this release began during the sessions for the band’s 2017 LP Beast Epic, but weren’t completed until now. Weed Garden continues the narrative arc of Beast Epic, resurfacing many of the same characters. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Blitzen Trapper’s landmark LP Furr, Sub Pop is preparing a sprawling reissue complete with a remaster along with 12 previously unreleased songs recording during the Furr sessions as well as two live performances from KCRW. What do these newly unearthed songs sound like? I don’t know, man! Get off my back! We’ll all find out when the reissue drops on Sept. 14. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Morning Show with Evie
As a part of Spotify’s ongoing Singles series, Iron & Wine made their way to the streaming services studios to record two live tracks – a rendition of “About a Bruise” from their 2017 album Beast Epic and a cover of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians’ “What I Am.” For the latter, the band strips the song down and turns it into a smokey, lounge-like jam. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Morning Show with Evie
While Sub Pop celebrates their 30th anniversary with a big party, Low is celebrating their 25th anniversary as a band with a new album. The record comes out Sept. 14, but the three singles that have been released thus far – “Quorum,” “Dancing and Blood,” and “Fly – show the band going in a much different direction, embracing harsh noice and experimental looping into their slowcore fold. It promises to be the darkest and potentially most challenging Low release yet – a sign of a band that’s not just keeping themselves from slowing down, but venturing into new territory. - DH
Date Played: August 10 on The Morning Show with Evie
Oh, you thought we were done with Tad, did ya? Think again! The band’s lead vocalist Thomas Andrew Doyle returns to the Sub Pop catalog under his given name with something a bit unexpected. Incineration Ceremony, released for Record Store Day 2018, isn’t the grinding, grimy rock we know and love from Tad, instead it’s a mixture of jazz and classical music. The record sounds more like the score to a Paul Thomas Anderson movie than a mosh pit. Doyle has a history with this sort of music though, having studied classical and jazz at Boise State University. Still, Doyle’s menacing edge comes through in the string arrangements and pounding symphonic sounds. - DH
Date Played: August 10 by Atticus
Knife Knights have yet to release their debut album, 1 Time Mirage, but the pedigree of its collaborators makes it a much hyped release for this fall. Knife Knights is the brainchild of Shabazz Palaces’ Ishamel Butler and producer Erik Blood. The two have worked together repeatedly on Shabazz records and the first instance of the Knife Knights moniker appears in the liner notes for the hip-hop group’s seminal album Black Up. From the singles we’ve heard so far – “Give You Game,” “My Dreams Never Sleep,” and “Light Up Ahead (Time Mirage)” – the album promises to deliver on the type of spacey mind-trip you’d hope from these two. The album will also feature Porter Ray, Breaks & Swells’ Marquetta Miller, KEXP DJs Stas THEE Boss and OCNotes (plus former Street Sounds host Larry Mizell under the moniker El Mizell), and more. - DH
Date Played: August 10 by Atticus
7 Layers is a series of concerts and live performance sessions featuring artists in stripped down sessions. Marika Hackman recorded this two song performance in an empty room and the recordings reflect that. Her voice rings out with the natural reverb of the cold, quiet space. She performs two songs, “I’d Rather Be With Them” and “Cigarette” from her 2017 LP I’m Not Your Man. - DH
Date Played: August 9 by DJ Shannon
This Melbourne, Australia band’s fifth album is a potent set of noisy post-punk with churning guitars, driving rhythms and alternating lead vocals from all four band members (who also share in the songwriting). - DY
Date Played: August 9 by DJ Shannon
Josh Tillman's fourth album as Father John Misty is a strong set of reflective folk-pop combining an often-somber sound with some of his most personal and emotionally direct lyrics to date on songs revolving around a troubled relationship and a life falling apart. - DY
Date Played: August 9 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The second full-length from the husband/wife duo of Noel Heroux (formerly of Hooray For Earth) and Jessica Zambri (of Zambri and Solvey) has a title many will relate to. In a press release, he reflects, "It just popped into my head. You can say it to a loved one, or to a friend. Or you could wish someone say it to you. It covers so many bases but it’s taken on extra meaning in the past couple of years while everybody is at each other’s throats; frustrated and confused all the time.” The twosome rented a cabin in the middle-of-nowhere upstate New York, purged most of their belongings, and lived out of a duffle bag for an entire year in order to record this new LP. “Overall it’s a conversation between the two of us,” Zambri adds. "It isn’t autobiographical to the point of alienating its listener though. It’s important that the songs provoke. It’s a record that concludes with the comfort in knowing that you can be both independent and successful in a relationship, which speaks quite literally of the pairs’ experience giving in to this process with one another.”
Date Played: August 9 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The debut full-length from this Vancouver, BC band led by Jo Hirabayashi is an intriguing blend of skewed psych-pop and grungy post-punk that combines fuzzy guitars and shape-shifting rhythms with lyrics revolving around issues of gentrification and identity. - DY
Date Played: August 9 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The final board in the Girl Skateboards collection for Sub Pop’s 30th anniversary comes with the Malto design, featuring a flexi split between Forth Wanderers and Moaning. Of all the splits in this series, this one might be the best for your night time antics. Grinding, Ollies, hitting a 900, going off a jump and exiting earth’s atmosphere. Man, so much you can (probably) do while riding a skateboard (I assume)! - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Midday Show with DJ Morgan
San Diego’s Hot Snakes meets Nashville’s Bully on this Flexi-disc paired with the Kennedy board from Sub Pop’s 30th anniversary collection with Girl Skateboards. The propulsive beats of each track are an apt fit to keep you motivated when you’re dropping in on the half-pipe (Jesus, I really don’t know much about skateboarding guys. I think I watched the X Games once when I was kid). If only you had a portable record player that could play the flexi while you flex on your board! Sadly, technology hasn’t caught up to the idea of “portable music.” - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Midday Show with DJ Morgan
This Baltimore duo's seventh album is another masterful set of atmospheric dream-pop with a hazy sound combining fuzzy guitars, shimmering keyboards and hypnotic rhythms with Victoria Legrand's haunting vocals and bittersweet lyrics exploring the dark side of glamour and the duality of love and loss. - DY
Date Played: August 9 on The Midday Show with DJ Morgan
Sub Pop’s 30th Anniversary collaboration with Girl Skateboards gets funky with the Biebel board and its accompanying Flexi-disc. The disc features the disco-grooves of King Tuff’s “Psycho Star” and the knotty riffs and bounce of Chad VanGaalen’s “Mind Hijacker’s Curse.” - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Midday Show with DJ Morgan
Another deck in Sub Pop’s collaboration with Girl Skateboards features this Flexi disc from Frankie Cosmos and Kyle Craft. Whereas the METZ and Downtown Boys single gave you a gnarly soundtrack to grind on rails like Jango Fett (look, everything I know about skateboarding is from the Tony Hawk Pro Skateboarder series), this single that accompanies the Trophy board gives you a more laidback vibe of Frankie Cosmos’ “Jesse” and Kyle Craft’s “The Rager.” It’s great for a leisurely ride down the streets at sunset… while dressed as Jango Fett. - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Morning Show with DJ Morgan
As a part of Sub Pop’s 30th anniversary celebrations, the label teamed up with Girl Skateboards for a series of Sub Pop themed decks designed by Sub Pop art director Sacha Barr with accompanying Flexi-disc, each disc featuring two Sub Pop bands. The McCrank Deck comes with possibly some of the best skating soundtrack you could grab from the label’s catalog, with the noisy one-two punch of METZ and Downtown Boys. - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Morning Show with Troy Nelson
This Jacksonville, FL artist's debut EP is a strong six-song set of psych-tinged indie-pop combining fuzzy synths and guitars, hip hop-influenced beats, airy harmonies and lovelorn lyrics juxtaposed with bright melodies. - DY
Date Played: August 9 on The Morning Show with Troy Nelson
This Australian duo's third album is another solid set of hushed folk-pop with spare guitars, mournful keyboards, stately rhythms and somber harmonies. - DY
Date Played: August 9 on The Morning Show with Troy Nelson
We’re reaching the point in the Sub Pop count-up where we’re starting to see catalog numbers for albums that aren’t even out yet. Case in point, Cullen Omori’s The Diet, which comes out Aug. 17. The former Smith Westerns lead vocalist embarks on his second solo album, embarking into dreamier, psych-heavy territory. Omori describes the album’s title in a press release statement:
“I named the album The Diet because to go on a diet, you cut back on certain things and regulate your intake of others. The idea that you can do that means you must have a surplus of whatever you’re trying to limit. I was so emotionally and spiritually drained, and my only surplus was a bunch of negative feelings and a lot of self-loathing. I tried to limit and confront those feelings in ways that I felt were productive. A big part of that was suppressing the obstructive, unnecessary minutiae that comes with being, or rather trying to be, a ‘professional musician,’ and beginning to write music with no pretense again.” - DH
Date Played: August 9 on The Morning Show with Troy Nelson
Sub Pop dives into the world of television with the digital release of the soundtrack for ABC’s The Mayor. The show, produced by clipping.’s Daveed Diggs, follows a struggling rapper who runs for mayor of Fort Grey, Calif. as a publicity stunt and ends up winning. Actor Brandon Michael Hall plays the titular mayor, aka rapper Courtney Rose, and performs the soundtrack alongside co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Bernard David Jones. Clipping. wrote all the songs for the show as well, so it’s kind of like getting another clipping. album! - DH
Date NOT Played: August 9
After ten years of making music under the moniker, Kyle Thomas has a brief respite through the clouds of his garage-nast glam rock. The Other, his fourth full length record was the most calmed down for the party boy, with an ambience that set off the typical garage stylings. — NS
Date Played: August 9 by Sean
This delightful collection of one hundred and seven songs from the first one hundred and seven episodes of Bobs’ Burgers, typically released in small snippets during the episode credits are here contained in their full recorded versions, along with some covers of the songs by other artists. — NS
[NOTE: #SP1229 reflects the Special Edition version, see also #SP1180]
Date Played: August 9 by DJ Sean
After the release of Dolls of Highland, Kraft and collaborator Kevin Clark were recording small covers in their home studio when the bug took over. The end result was a full fledged project of covers by all-female artists, including Sharon Van Etten, Cher, and Patsy Cline. — NS
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Hans
Josh Tillman meets his quota for being a notable collaboration weirdo with this online exclusive. In the video that accompanied this release release, Tillman’s stripped down vocals are given more drama and bleak emotion by Haxan Cloak’s disaster movie rumble over smash cuts of festival footage, cultural meme icons and early-oughts red lobster commercials. — NS
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Hans
Clipping returned after a two-year silence with 2016’s jaw dropping sci-fi noise-rap voyage Splendor and Misery. “The Deep” was an online exclusive of about ten minutes. If the record was a novel, "The Deep" was a novella of the same author, with the same afro-centric fancifully edged narrative, and same one part earthy two parts completely schizophrenic sonic language. — NS
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Hans
This veteran Seattle band’s 11th album is one of their angriest and most politically charged albums, with sardonic, often-darkly humorous lyrics ripping into the politics of fear, gun violence, religious hypocrisy, and much more, while the band’s sound remains as primal and vital as ever. — DY
The fourth studio album (and first in 14 years) from this influential San Diego band is a strong return to form that finds them sounding as vital as ever on a blistering batch of urgent, tightly coiled garage-punk. - DY
Date Played: August 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
After the passing of Afghan Whigs guitarist and frequent Greg Dulli collaborator Dave Rosser, the Whigs paid homage to their bandmate with a cover of Pleasure Club’s “You Want Love.” It’s a track that Dulli and Rosser had talked about covering for years, a fitting tribute to a longtime friend. The Whigs even got Pleasure Club’s James Hall to sing on the track, adding to the stirring atmosphere of this heavy-hearted rendition. - DH
Date Played: August 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
This Montclair, NJ-bred band's second album is a strong set of emotive, '90s-influenced rock combining intertwining guitars and wistful melodies with Ava Trilling's aching vocals and emotionally direct, sometimes cutting lyrics of love, heartache and independence. - DY
Date Played: August 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
This Portland-based artist's second album is an impressive blend of rollicking folk-rock, boisterous glam and more, combining a warm, rich sound featuring electric and acoustic guitars, piano, organ, strings, horns, harmonica and more with his electric vocals and sharply crafted narratives.- DY
Date Played: August 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
This Melbourne, Australia band's debut full-length is an excellent set of jangly post-punk with multiple electric and acoustic guitars and driving, often-motorik rhythms accompanying an alternating trio of lead vocalists on hook-filled songs with lyrics ranging from personal heartache to white privilege. - DY
Date Played: August 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
Before taking a hiatus, Hot Snakes reconvened one last time to record Audit In Progress in 2005. After embracing a sludgier pace on Suicide Invoice, the band opts to sprint in the other direction with one of their fastest and wildest albums in their catalog. It’s a howl into the abyss that would leave fans clamoring for more until the band would eventually return in 2018 with Jericho Sirens. - DH
Date Played: August 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
It’d be unfair to say that Hot Snakes started to slow down with Suicide Invoice, or at the very least it would be misleading. Sure, the tempos dropped a little bit from Automatic Midnight, but this was hardly the band going soft. As you can hear on Sub Pop’s reissue of the 2002 classic, John Reis and co. embrace the gnarly energy of the dirge. Hot Snakes already know they can blow out your ear drums, and on this record they found they can do it at a slower pace to savor every grind of each mangled guitar riff. - DH
Date Played: August 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
As Sub Pop prepared to release San Diego punk outfit Hot Snakes’ first album in 14 years, Jericho Sirens, the label kicked off 2018 by reissuing the band’s earlier records which were originally released on Swami Records. All three of the band’s earliest records were reissued at the same time, but it only seems appropriate to take a look at the band’s ferocious 2000 debut Automatic Midnight first. John Reis was already a legend in his own right when he started up Hot Snakes, taking a break from his band Rocket From the Crypt and five years removed from the celebrated post-hardcore group Drive Like Jehu (which also featured Hot Snakes member Rick Froberg). Hot Snakes was meant to be just another side project before it took on a life of its own. With its member spread across the country, there was no real intention to take the band on the road at first, but demand was so high after this blaring collection of punk tracks, that the band made it a point to convene and, as they say, “take the show on the road.” - DH
Date Played: August 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
This LA trio's debut album is a promising set of moody, '80s-steeped rock ranging from driving, goth-tinged post-punk to fuzzy, shoegazerish dream-pop, combining a bleak, atmospheric sound with melancholy lyrics of heartbreak and loss. - DY
Date Played: August 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
In her first release on Sub Pop –– but her 52nd work to date when you count all her Bandcamp release — 24-year-old Greta Kline cements her reputation as a prolific indie pop chanteuse with punk roots (her songs are remarkably short; the 18 tracks on Vessel clock in at around 33 minutes). What does the young New Yorker want her fans to get from the album? In her words, “You can change all the time and you don’t have to define yourself in, like, a nutshell for everyone. I think that’s something that I would’ve liked to learn as a younger person. To know that someone who might be a public figure or an artist doesn’t necessarily know who they are, and isn’t finished becoming who they are — and that’s okay. When I was younger everything was a little more black and white, and now I’m like, you can not know. And I’m okay with not knowing. Forever.” - KF
Date Played: August 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Loma is a slowcore collaboration between Shearwater front man Jonathan Meiburg and the duo Cross Record — singer Emily Cross and instrumentalist Dan Duszynski. The two bands toured together in 2016, leaving Meiburg inspired to write music for a voice not his own. He invited Cross Record to collaborate, and Loma was born. Recorded in Cross and Duszynski's home in Dripping Springs, Texas, the album is unusually beautiful, as it drives through dreamlike arrangements featuring Cross’s sparse vocals and field recordings of frogs, dogs, and the wind. Think Low meets Grouper meets This is the Kit. When Loma began, Cross and Duszynski were married, but by the end of the recording process, they decided to divorce. So while the album doesn’t document their breakup, it does inspire reflection on compatibility and loneliness. Although the project’s future is unknown, they’ll be making a rare appearance this weekend at Sub Pop’s SPF 30! - KF
Date Played: August 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The first non-bootleg live Mudhoney album, LiE (Live in Europe) was recorded during the Seattle band’s 2016 European tour in Germany, Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Norway, and Slovenia. The album features a wide range of sludgy songs, including the fuzziest rendition of Roxy Music’s “Editions of You” you’ve ever heard. A fine way to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary this year. - KF
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Abbie
The Montreal band’s fourth full-length — and fourth release on Sub Pop — this album marked a triumphant return for Wolf Parade, who had announced an amicable but indefinite hiatus back in 2010. While on pause, lead vocalists Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner focused on other projects; the former released music as Moonface, while the latter worked via Handsome Furs, Operators and Divine Fits. Recorded largely at Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, WA, this album finds Wolf Parade more meticulous in their arrangements and more rousing in their indie urgency. - KF
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Abbie
The Nashville-based grunge rockers’ second album — their first for Sub Pop — was recorded at lead singer and guitarist Alicia Bognanno’s home away from home, Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studios. Having cut her teeth as a recording engineer at the Chicago studio Bognanno served as this album’s producer and engineer. The album documents complexities personal growth can have on our relationships. Said Bognanno, “The title of the record — Losing — kind of says it all. After being on the road so long and coming back to Nashville, we all had a lot of changes going on in our personal lives that we were trying to deal with / adjust to and that was really the motivation for this one.” - KF
Date Played: August 8 by DJ Abbie
One of two simultaneously released albums from the Seattle hip hop duo of former Digable Planets frontman Ishmael Butler (aka Palaceer Lazaro) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire, Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star is an impressive set of adventurous hip hop combining an ominous, shape-shifting sound with often heavily processed and reverbed vocals and dystopian lyrics. — DY
Date Played: August 7 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Releasing two albums at once wasn’t ambitious enough for Shabazz Palaces, so it would seem. Alongside the dual Quazarz records, the iconic Seattle hip-hop duo also released an illustrated version of Quazarz vs The Jealous Machines in conjunction with local graphic novel publishing house Fantagraphics. The book details each song on the album with visual components, fleshing out the sci-fi world of Quazarz with remarkable artwork by Joshua Ray Stephens. - DH
Date Played: August 7 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Portland’s Kyle Craft takes on a classic from a recently deceased legend, Leonard Cohen. Craft’s cover of “Chelsea Hotel #2” finds him alone at the piano, howling the familiar words in an empty room. Craft released this statement along with the song’s release:
“Chelsea Hotel #2, the way Cohen delivers it, it’s through a window into another time and the further we get into this thing, the future, the more I feel like a stranger. When he died, I felt very alone…as I’m sure many people did. The song is for him, for Patti Smith, for Dylan…for everyone who inspired me to write and for a time and place that seems so foreign now.” - DH
Date Played: August 7 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The third album from this Providence, RI band is a hard-hitting blend of driving post-punk and raucous garage-rock, combining buzzing guitars, searing keyboards, wailing sax and energetic rhythms with Victoria Ruiz's impassioned vocals and politically militant, bilingual lyrics attacking racism, classism and homophobia. — DY
Date Played: August 7 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
This Baltimore duo's latest release collects various b-sides, outtakes and iTunes sessions, and while it's understandably not up to the quality of any of their official albums, a few songs are worth checking out. — DY
Date Played: August 7 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
This 7-inch was included with Loser Edition copies of Marika Hackman’s Sub Pop debut, I’m Not Your Man. The two songs on the single, “AM” and “Majesty,” are noted as bonus tracks but appear as part of the main tracklisting on streaming platforms. The stomping march of “AM” and the stuttering guitars of “Majesty” showcase Hackman’s keen sense of rhythm within her songwriting. - DH
Date Played: August 7 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
This Calgary artist's sixth album is a smartly crafted blend of soaring psych-pop, cosmic space-rock, jangly folk-rock, chugging glam and more, juxtaposing bright pop hooks with often-dark lyrics revolving around anxiety, alienation and mortality. — DY
Date Played: August 7 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
This British artist's second album is a more electric and aggressive take on her expansive folk-pop, combining a full-band rock sound with her breathy vocals and frank lyrics revolving around relationships and identity. — DY
Date Played: August 7 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
