Weekly Roundup: February 28th
Featuring Ritual Earth, Oso Oso, Static Dress, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Greg Puciato – “Lowered” (feat. Reba Meyers)
Cementing his reputation as one of the most versatile alternative artists of his generation, Greg Pucatio (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan, The Black Queen, Killer Be Killed) has returned with a taster from his upcoming sophomore solo album, Mirrorcell, out June 17th through Federal Prisoner. Lead single “Lowered” is a pulsing synth-pop banger featuring Code Orange’s Reba Meyers, and it’s a promising indication of what fans can expect from the record. Watch the desert road trip video for “Lowered” below:
SPICE – Viv
A good friend of mine put me onto SPICE’s stellar 2020 debut self-titled album and it remains one of my favourite records of the plague years. So, suffice to say, I’m super excited for the L.A. alt-rock outfit’s full-length follow-up, Viv (out May 20th through Dais Records). According to the band, we can expect “[r]awness refined into reckonings, approaching truth, born of cold mornings, bad luck, and too many wrong turns.” Hell yeah, sounds upbeat. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Afghan Whigs – “I'll Make You See God”
Cincinnati rockers The Afghan Whigs are finally back after five long years, following up 2017’s exceptional In Spades with the release of a blood-pumping new single. The track blends some foot-to-the-floor QOTSA energy with Dulli’s whiskey-soaked rasp and big band soul, and it has me stoked on more to come. I also wrote about the group’s fifth album, the seminal Black Love (1996), for my Deep Cuts series last week, and that piece comes highly recommended from yours truly. Listen to “I’ll Make You See God” here.
Goldilush – Fragile Zombies
Well, I guess we can now add Goldilush to the list of unnecessarily overpowered super-groups. Featuring former members of Darkest Hour, Revocation, Dead To Fall, and The Jonbenét, the Texas collective offer up the perfect blend of neo-grunge “Trapper Keeper” stoner rock—picture Stone Temple Pilots covering ZZ Top with Billy Corgan on vocals in some backwater Houston saloon and you’d be pretty close. The group’s debut album, Fragile Zombies, is out on April 30th. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Oso Oso – “Pensacola”
After 2019’s Basking In the Glow, I’ve been patiently waiting for Jade Lilitri to get back on the horse. Thankfully, the Oso Oso singer-songwriter heard the call and dropped a brand-spanking-new banger this week. Titled “Pensacola,” the song transplants Lilitri’s established Long Island sound to the sunny shores of Florida, resulting in a whimsical little ditty that muddies the temporality of day-drinking with the blur of inter-subjectivity. In other words, it’s on that emo shit. Listen to “Pensacola” here.
Ritual Earth – MMXX
Philly crushers Ritual Earth take heady influence from the celestial realm on their mammoth debut LP, MMXX (out March 18th through Iodine Recordings). Colossal grooves crash and linger in the ether like the poison whisper of solar radiation while bursts of quicksilver riffage and lofty vocal lines add shine and signature to the group’s dominion of darkness. Fans of anything doom, psych and post-metal adjacent should jump aboard and prepare for blast off. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Static Dress – “such.a.shame”
Back in December, I wrote about how Static Dress incorporated the best elements of theatrics and world-building from luminaries like My Chemical Romance and Creeper to form their own captivating blend of punk rock and post-hardcore. Well, with the announcement of Rouge Carpet Disaster, the Leeds quartet’s long-anticipated debut LP (out May 18th through Venn Records), we will finally see the fruits of their narrative labour. Lead single “such.a.shame” is equal parts heavy and heart-wrenching, with a sticky chorus that exemplifies the versatility of their sonic approach. Watch the video below:
XL Life – Just Do It
Looking at the artwork and title for “Just Do It,” it’s pretty clear that Welsh hardcore crew XL Life are big-time sports fans. According to frontman Traxx:
“The song to us is a soundtrack to the tenacity of sportspeople. The grit and determination to push your personal boundaries... It’s only now that I’ve just realised punk music is the perfect soundtrack to sport, whether it’s an Olympic compilation or a Rocky montage. Give me some beating riff underneath and ramped up drums and let’s run faster.”
It’s a propulsive, forward-thinking jam in the vein of genre contemporaries like Turnstile and Militarie Gunn with a slick lo-fi outro that speaks to the band’s more playful side. Stream the single here (Spotify/YouTube).
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2022 TUNES playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Conway The Machine – God Don’t Make Mistakes
If there’s one thing working in Conway The Machine’s favour, it’s his prodigious work ethic. Since 2020, the Buffalo emcee has dropped six studio projects: two full-length albums, two collaborative albums, and two mixtapes. Now that’s an impressive amount of material for a rapper of any calibre. Factoring in his most recent effort and Shady Records debut, God Don’t Make Mistakes, alongside the impeccable pairing of 2020’s From a King to A GOD and 2021’s La Maquina, it’s clear that Conway is on a career-defining winning streak.
What allows this latest LP is rise above such an already strong back catalogue is Conway’s ability to fuse vulnerability with viciousness. Take the album’s lead single, The Alchemist produced “Piano Love”: twinkling notes dart across a grimy boom-bap beat sprinkled over Conway’s frosty flow like instrumental icepicks. While the chorus hook is all flash and fashion, mixing money with Chanel brand drops, the track’s second verse gets dangerous real fast:
“Don’t matter if you was in front of the precinct, you gettin’ stained/
Ain’t no respect in my hood unless you put in some pain/
Keep sleepin’ on my city and thinkin’ this shit a game.
We don’t play fair, drive-bys right in front of the daycare /
We spray hairpin triggers, that FN on the waist here.”
Whether he’s shrugging off the pandemic on the kinetic “Drumwork,” or talking about the 2012 shooting that left him with Bells Palsy and permanent nerve damage from two shots to the head and neck on the raw “Guilty,” there’s a grim realism to be found in every cinematic hood fable.
As album standout “Stressed” opens up to a solemn confessional, braggadocio and chest-beating take a back seat to real talk, circling around Conway’s ongoing battle with depression, alcoholism, and the grief he suffered after losing a son. It’s a stern reminder that behind every legend is a real person, caught up in the same tormented cycle of fear, desire and mortality as the rest of us.