Weekly Roundup: June 12th

Featuring Drab Majesty, Fiddlehead, Teenage Wrist, and more.

MOSH PITHY:

A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.

Blanket – “Blue Eyes”

Church Road Records continue to come through with the goods. Blackpool alt-rock/shoegazers Blanket began as the brainchild of vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire Bobby Pook before expanding into a robust quartet. I first came across them with 2021’s Modern Escapism LP (which was dope), which paired thick, wall-of-sound riffage with striking emotional resonance—picture a Venn diagram with Foo Fighters, Deftones, and Failure. The group’s latest single is also the title track from their forthcoming EP (out September 1st), which will feature new material alongside never-before-released covers of Radiohead and Post Malone. Watch the video for “Blue Eyes” below:

Seltzer – Chromatic

Okay, so here’s a new group that popped up on my radar with little-to-no information. Seltzer are an outfit out of San Jose, and their debut EP, Chromatic, is six tracks of fun and upbeat indie/power-pop with breezy vocals and radiant summery hooks. As they describe it on their Instagram profile, the EP is chock full of “new and refreshing rock music now streaming for your enjoyment.” Hell yeah. Stream the EP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).

Restraining Order – “Misled”

Hardcore heavy-hitters Restraining Order are coming back with a vengeance. The Massachusetts outfit has announced the release of their sophomore album, Locked In Time, out July 21st on Triple B Records. It’s a record that embraces the unrelenting hardcore punk ferocity of their 2019 debut, This World Is Too Much, while also flirting with garage, psychedelia and other classic rock sounds. Expect lots of melody and big, sing-a-long hooks hiding among the speed and chaos. Listen to “Misled” here.

Drab Majesty – An Object in Motion

Darkwave/post-punk revivalists Drab Majesty are following up on 2019’s Modern Mirror LP with a new four-song release. It’s called An Object In Motion and will be out on August 25th on Dais Records. Coming in at 32 minutes and sitting somewhere between an EP and a mini-album, the release finds the pair leaning into neo-psych territory with ambient guitar textures that encourage “flow states” where the “sound leads the way.” Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).

Teenage Wrist & Softcult – “Still Love”

I’ve been patiently waiting for L.A. rockers Teenage Wrist to build on 2021’s superb Earth Is A Black Hole, which was one of my favourite records of that year. They’ve been teasing us with a few standalone singles this year, but now they’ve finally come through with a proper follow-up announcement in the best possible way. The duo’s upcoming third full-length is called Still Love, it’s out on August 4th through Epitaph, and the title track is a glorious collab with fellow Canadian neo-grunge rockers Softcult. It’s the team-up I never knew I needed, but also not the only one, with additional guest features like 311, Sister Void, and Kamtin Mohager of Heavenward. Listen to the record’s title track here.

Innumerable Forms – The Fall Down

I last heard from heavy death/doom institution Innumerable Forms back in September with the release of their Philosophical Collapse LP. Well, last week, they roared back with a surprise drop that featured three new, skull-crushing dirges ready for morbid consumption. The EP is titled The Fall Down, and it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by the tone master himself, Arthur Rizk, at Redwoods Studio. The release’s Bandcamp page states this is “The sound of life-draining depression complimented with blast flurries of raging disgust—the two best stages of grief.” So, if you want slow, oppressive, grim sounds to wash over you, then this is for you. Stream the EP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).

Fiddlehead – “Sullenboy”

Post-hardcore outfit Fiddlehead have unveiled their upcoming third full-length, Death Is Nothing To Us, due out August 18th via Run For Cover Records. The new LP represents the culmination of the thematic trilogy that began with their previous two releases, as vocalist Pat Flynn continues to wrestle with existential themes like loss, grief, hope, fatherhood and change. (You know, adult shit.) It’s shaping up to be the group’s most dynamic, powerful, and immediate collection of tracks to date. The quintet are also embarking on their first-ever Australian tour dates in late August, thanks to the good folks over at Last Ride Records. (Tickets here.) Check out the video for “Sullenboy” below:

Béton Armé – Second Souffle

I don’t know what it is about Montreal right now, but that whole city is coming through with some of the best Oi!-inflected punk rock in recent memory. The standout release from the good folks over at Roachleg Records HQ last week was the new four-track EP from Béton Armé titled Second Souffle. Now, look, I’m not an expert on Oi! or the history of that particular scene on both sides of the Atlantic, but this shit right here is utterly infectious and sounds top-notch to my virgin ears. The razor-sharp riffs and anthemic gang vocal hooks make me wanna shave my head and become a skin (disclaimer: a good skin, obviously–it’s always “Nazi punks fuck off” now and forever). All I can tell you is it only took one listen for me to know that this would be one of my favourite releases for the year, no question. Stream the EP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).

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Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2023 CUTS playlist, updated weekly.

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HEAVY METTLE:

A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.

GELD – Currency // Castration

According to guitarist Cormac Ó Síocháin, acid-punks GELD don’t take kindly to the physical principle undergirding Newton’s First Law of Motion: “Inertia disgusts us.” However, this revulsion makes sense when you place it in the proper context. Listening to Currency // Castration, the group’s third full-length effort and debut for Relapse Records, one gets the sense that pushing hardcore to its limits isn’t merely enough. Instead, they seek to bend, twist, and mutate the subgenre for their own devices, unfurling “a series of infinite reflections breaking down into fractal chaos.”

Across the 12-track record, one hears the dirge and din of genre iconoclasts like Discharge, Gauze, Bastard, and Australia’s own Primitive Blast. And yet, GELD would never resort to pure imitation. The quartet are resolutely defined by innovation pushed to its sonic extremes, and they’re more than willing to see how deep that well goes. As vocalist Al Smith puts it: “One of the most boring things people can do is try to dress up what someone else has already contributed to a genre and make it ‘clever’… We’re more interested in finding our own position.”

Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify

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ERRONEOUS BOTCH:

For our latest entry in the Deep Cuts canon, we’re honoured to be joined on The Pitch pod by Will Conway, philosophy graduate student and co-host of the excellent Acid Horizon podcast. Together we dive headfirst into Youth, the remarkable debut album from emo rockers and Run for Cover staple Citizen, which approaches its tenth-anniversary milestone this month.

Our discussion seeks to decode the record's vast narrative contours by intricately navigating the guttural terrain of adolescent estrangement, the sick joy of schadenfreude, persistent existence, and the visceral thrill of driving alone at night. “Do you sleep anymore?” Check it out below: