Weekly Roundup: January 13th
Featuring Church Tongue, SOM, The Dirty Nil, and more.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Greetings! New year, same newsletter. Shout out to all our new subscribers!
2025 is already getting off to a rocky start, but I have a slew of new alternative tunes to run through this week. But first, housekeeping. Please do me a favour and check out the below links and hit follow (if you haven’t already):
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Now, on with the words…
SIDE A:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
SOM – “Nightmares”
I featured “doom pop” outfit SOM in this newsletter all the way back in 2022 off the release of their phenomenal The Shape of Everything LP. It seems the quartet have been busy throughout those intervening years, building on that rock-solid foundation and prepping their full-length follow-up, Let The Light In, available on March 14th through Pelagic Records.
While “doom pop” isn’t precisely pinned down as a descriptor, it’s essentially what it says on the tin: dreamy, ethereal melodies, lush atmospherics, and a palpable sense of heaviness, both thematic and sonic, allowing SOM to “turn their sights inward, towards our most primal impulses.” Watch the video for “Nightmares” below:
The Sex Guys – Tin Foil Hat
In recent news for good bands with sketchy SEO, Gold Coast garage rockers The Sex Guys—the project of Entrapment guitarist Dennis Levonis—have dropped a cheeky new tune in the form of anti-cooker rager “Tin Foil Hat.”
The Queensland trio’s latest comes courtesy of the GDFRNDS label, and it’s a fun ode to every close-talker, YouTube-pilled conspiracy uncle with a diabolical algorithm you’ve ever heard of/had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting next to over the holidays. As the band put it on their Instagram announcement post:
“Mumma always told me: ‘Don’t believe everything you hear in the news.’ Well this time, you better fuckin’ believe it! You’ve read the rumours, now hear the news, straight from the source. ‘Tin Foil Hat’ has been released into the atmosphere, and that shit is fugg’n contagious.”
Stream the single here (Spotify).
Church Tongue – “Bury Me (One Thousand Times)”
I haven’t heard much from Indianapolis heavy merchants Church Tongue since 2021’s excellent The Hubris Of Gods Departed three-track. Well, now the metalcore ragers have announced their signing to Pure Noise Records, and You’ll Know It Was Me, their label debut set for release on February 14th.
The EP features guest appearances from Colin Young (Twitching Tongues, God’s Hate, HardLore), George Clarke (Deafheaven), and Crystal Pak (Initiate). According to vocalist Mike Sugars, You’ll Know It Was Me is a short record about love: “Love looks like a lot of things, and each track touches on it in its own way.” Listen to the EP’s lead single, “Bury Me (One Thousand Times),” here.
Canary Bones – Demo
Naarm/Melbourne noise rockers Canary Bones weren’t on my radar for 2025. Still, thanks to vocalist Dave (who very politely slid into my email inbox), I’m now well acquainted with the sextet’s recently released four-track demo. This is angular and abrasive stuff that will scratch the post-hardcore itch for fans of Hüsker Dü, Fugazi, At the Drive-In, Envy, Coalesce, and others.
As Dave told me in his “Hey, please check this out (respectfully)” email, the group’s “pairing of sonic intensity and rhythmic tranquillity matches the bleak but hopeful lyrics covering topics such as post-pandemic anxiety, family estrangement, parental burnout, and the disappointment of unmet expectations.” Stream the group’s demo in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Korine – “Anhedonia”
Okay, I know I’m doing a lot of “last time I wrote about [insert cool band here]” this week, but it’s my newsletter, so we persevere. After covering Korine a bunch, my most recent effort was raving about their 2023 LP, Tear, a gorgeous blend of new wave and synthwave with emo and goth textures.
The Philly “dark pop” duo–Morgy Ramone and Trey Frye–will follow up that record with A Flame In The Dark on March 28th via Born Losers Records. While the new album’s lead single takes thematic cues from the inability to experience pleasure or joy, I promise that the listening experience is pure, infectious euphoria. Listen to “Anhedonia” here.
SIDE B:
More tracks for you. Deep cuts for the real heads. Still cool.
Death Tax – Turn To Dust
Late last year, Danny from Frankston hardcore sensation Fever Shack was on the show, where he teased some upcoming material for his other project, “Melbourne Boltdown” bruisers Death Tax. What’s “boltdown” exactly, you ask? Picture the bulldozing percussion and ceaseless rhythmic bludgeoning of death metal luminaries Bolt Thrower at their Warhammer soundtrack peak, and then add a penchant for swift beatdown grooves and mosh stylings.
The band’s debut EP, Turn To Dust, is dropping next month through Begreave In God (BIG) Records, featuring five tracks of “slow, brutal, down-tuned death that crushes you into the earth then scorches your remains.” Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Spotify).
The Dirty Nil – “I Hate The Internet”
Snarky Canadian rockers The Dirty Nil dropped their Free Rein to Passions LP in 2023 and squeezed in a deluxe release of that record last year. Is there a new album on the way? It's hard to say, but we do have two new songs, which means something is definitely cooking in the Nil camp (Dirt HQ?).
Where Free Rein… was about “working soul-sucking jobs, shredding on guitar, and striving to be a kinder person,” the band’s latest two-track, I Hate The Internet b/w True Devotion, out now through Dine Alone Records/Civilians, takes the same approach and turns to the digital realm for similarly enjoyable results. Watch the visualiser for “I Hate The Internet” below:
SpiritWorld – Helldorado
I’m an absolute sucker for both campy narratives AND exceptional album titles (with extra points for a witty portmanteau and/or pun). SpiritWorld’s previous LP, 2022’s Deathwestern, was a concept album about “a lowlife cowboy reborn as a crusading avenger against demonic forces,” and it was straight-up evil Rootin’ Tooting’ Cowboy Shootin’ music.
So it’s safe to say that Helldorado, the forthcoming full-length follow-up from the Las Vegas metallic hardcore crushers out on March 21st via Century Media, has me sucked right in. While I’ve only heard two singles from the new record, both feature spaghetti western licks, stupid hard divebombs, and thrash-worthy riff breaks that make me want to collect my own bounty. So yeah, consider me sucked. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
FEATURE ALBUM:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks my boxes.
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out
“You know how Fleetwood Mac almost dedicated Rumours to their cocaine dealer? I think we should dedicate this album to all the booze we bought at Tesco.”
This anecdote, one direct from the mouths of UK punk party-starters Lambrini Girls, is revealing for two reasons.
The first is quantity, which alludes specifically to the 48 beers, a bottle of vodka, six bottles of wine, two bottles of Lambrini, rum and tequila consumed by Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira during the second recording session for their highly anticipated debut LP, the vitriolic Who Let The Dogs Out (out now through City Slang). The second reason, clarity of purpose, is nonetheless essential despite the perceived dampening effect of the first.
Pre-release singles like “Company Culture” and “Big Dick Energy” showcase the white-hot rage and effortless charisma that have made the Brighton duo into tongue-in-cheek media firebrands, aiming at the clear and present ills of modern British society and revelling in the kill shot. Look no further than the scathing “Filthy Rich Nepo Baby” or the record’s strutting closer—the exquisitely titled “Cuntology 101”—to get a real sense of who belongs back in the kennel.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify