Weekly Roundup: December 19th
Featuring The Acacia Strain, XL Life, Dänmark, and more.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
This will be my last Weekly Roundup for 2022 while I take a break next week to recharge and reset my anally retentive spreadsheet system for another year. So, if you enjoy these roundups, make sure to check out the TPD // 2022 TUNES playlist for all of the featured tracks. I’ve pulled together 425 songs and over one whole day’s worth of material for you!
Also, don’t forget to check out The Pitch pod, and keep your ears pricked for my upcoming Top 10 Albums of 2022 list…
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
XL Life – “Baby Steps” feat. Bob Vylan
Cardiff hardcore crew XL Life have announced a new album for 2023. It’s called The Boogie Down South, and it’s set for release on January 27th via Venn Records. The record’s thematic focus is described as “a hard-hitting body of work that lays bare the band’s struggles with substance abuse, violence, disabilities, broken homes and mental health problems,” which sounds pretty hectic to me. The group have also received a decent serving of praise from a bunch of high-profile UK rock press and media, so I’m keen to see where they take things on a full length. Watch the video for “Baby Steps” below:
Stress Fractures – S/T
Stress Fractures is the emo/pop punk project of Martin Hacker-Mullen, who hails from Columbia, South Carolina and runs the Acrobat Unstable label. The group is gearing up to release their self-titled debut album on January 13th via Old Press/Acrobat Unstable, and the record also features Caden Clinton (Pool Kids) on drums. Hacker-Mullen describes the album as “a collection of songs written over the course of ~5 years about the times I felt lost or confused during my early adulthood, and there was a point in time where I never thought it would exist.” Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Acacia Strain – “Untended Graves”
It’s been over two years since we’ve had new material from Massachusetts/NY moshlords The Acacia Strain, but they're finally back! Their new track is their first single since their tenth album, 2020’s Slow Decay, and it takes their doom-inclined progression and buries it six feet deep in sludge and filth. It’s short and heavy as fuck, with a philosophical lyrical bent waxing on the hubris of humanity and the entropic reality of death. Listen to “Untended Graves” here.
Algiers – SHOOK
Hailing from “the rotten hub of the Ol’ American South, where W.E.B. Dubois once saw a riot goin’ on, and where the hell and highwater swirls ‘round to the knees,” Atlanta post-punk outfit Algiers are coming through with their fourth LP in the new year. The 17-track record is called SHOOK and drops on February 24th through Matador Records. I first came across the band off the back of 2017’s The Underside of Power, and I feel like they’re one of the more interesting outfits in this ongoing post-punk resurgence and/or revival. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
follow – “Sentimental Health”
Well, it looks like we can expect a full-length from Tasmanian instrumental post-rock outfit follow next year. The sextet began as a bedroom project for Luca Brasi guitarist Thomas Busby, who recruited a crew of mates and Tassie locals to fill out the personnel list. Busby produced, engineered and mixed their debut album, Old Haunts (out early 2023), and it should satiate fans of Aussie staples like sleepmakeswaves and We Lost The Sea. Listen to “Sentimental Health” here.
Skin Failure – Radillac
In what is likely to be my final random Bandcamp find for this year, I came across Radillac, the rollicking debut album from Bristol progressive thrash/hardcore group Skin Failure, and this thing fucking rocks. The album name is honestly pitch-perfect for a bunch of lads mining a wealth of heavy influences, including Every Time I Die, Mastodon, Slayer, Torche, and many others. It’s heavy, trippy, and a roaring good time with a raging hard-on for big meaty riffs. Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Dänmark – “The 10 Days it Takes to Plan a Funeral”
Last week saw the release of the latest single from Brisbane rockers Dänmark. The group features members of We Set Sail, and they’ve got a sound that harkens back to late 90s/early 00s indie rock and emo—think Death Cab For Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, The Jealous Sound, etc. And, as the title suggests, it’s a tune with death and grief firmly on its mind, yet this thematic focus makes for a beautiful and arresting slow burn with an emotionally resonant core. More of this, please, gents. Watch the video for “The 10 Days it Takes to Plan a Funeral” below:
Discreet – This Is Mine
This came from an Instagram recommendation, and I’ve never been so thankful for the international reach of social media. This Is Mine is the new LP from Texas hardcore act Discreet (out now through Convulse Records), which features members of Total Abuse, Skeleton, and Creepoid. The album “offers 14 tracks of devastating meditation on the realities of life, sex, addiction and trauma,” in the vein of breakneck groups like American Nightmare and Trash Talk. It’s fast, discordant, and extremely pissed. Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
For Tracy Hyde – Hotel Insomnia
Japanese quartet For Tracy Hyde have been active for nearly a decade yet somehow completely escaped my musical radar. I came across their fifth album, Hotel Insomnia, last week, and the 13-track collection blew my socks off. But what really stood out, at least immediately, was this press release/disclaimer with a primary focus on the record’s understated cover artwork:
“TROUBLED MUSIC FOR TROUBLED TIMES: Redefining the Pleasure and Purpose of Fuzzed-Up Guitar Rock in a Chaotic World.
Approximately two years after the concept album Ethernity, which adopted a more physical sound inspired by emo and grunge to depict the duality of America as a superpower, describing For Tracy Hyde as shoegaze/dream pop is an oversimplification. Their 5th album Hotel Insomnia was mastered by Mark Gardener (Ride), taking their roaring beauty to new heights. Rather than relying on conceptuality, the album takes a snapshot approach depicting one scene per song to capture the zeitgeist of these uneasy times and the power of beauty and love that remains amidst them.”
Honestly, I love this so much. It’s hard as fuck and completely unpretentious. More bands should be bold enough to stamp their mission statement and PR speel on their covers. I mean, it certainly makes my job easier. So, if you like the sound of the above, then I highly recommend checking this one out.
Stream here: Spotify