Weekly Roundup: May 1st
Featuring The Gaslight Anthem, Movements, Home Is Where, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Home Is Where – “yes! yes! a thousand times yes!”
Floridian emo purveyors Home Is Where have announced their sophomore album, the whaler, to be released on June 16th via Wax Bodega. The LP is described as “an ambitious and exhilarating concept record” that captures “the desensitization and disorientation of tragedy becoming mundane.” Hell yeah. How’s that for modern living? The album serves as the follow-up to their well-received 2021 debut LP, I Became Birds and was produced by Jack Shirley (Joyce Manor, Deafheaven). Watch the video for “yes! yes! a thousand times yes!” below:
Downside – Dark Patterns & Intrusive Thoughts
While Newcastle bruisers Downside have been around the block since 2012, we’re only now getting word on the group’s debut album. After some time away, they’ve popped back up with a revitalised line-up to announce their Dark Patterns & Intrusive Thoughts LP, due for release on May 19th through the good folks over at Last Ride Records. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Elliott Gallart at Chameleon Studios, and it finds the quintet weaponising their flare for dark metallic hardcore and stomping grooves. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Movements – “Killing Time”
Well, it’s been a hot minute since we heard from Movements. No need for despair, however, as the Californian alt-rockers resurfaced last week with a shiny new two-track single produced by man-of-the-hour Will Yip. The quartet are reportedly at the dawn of a new era, having “spent the past several months flexing their creative muscles [and] pushing their sonic boundaries.” Of the new tracks, “Killing Time” is the groovier one of the two, with gritty verses, a fuzzed-out chorus, and a moody bridge, while “Lead Pipe” delivers a faster, more straightforward rock number. Listen to “Killing Time” here.
High Priest – Invocation
If you’re into lofty vocals, sonic escapism, and riffs big enough to pierce the veil of the heavens, then boy, do I have something for you. Chicago doomlords High Priest have been on my radar for a while now, and they’ve finally announced details for their forthcoming debut LP, Invocation, out on June 23 via Magnetic Eye Records. Guitarist John Regan describes the record as a long time coming:
“On top of the craziness in the world the last two years, we experienced a lot of changes as a band: PhDs, new businesses, new homes, new cities. Despite all that, we brought all our energy into an album that feels like the best and most complete work we’ve ever done. Invocation feels like catharsis inside chaos.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Gaslight Anthem – “Positive Charge”
Back in July last year, I wrote a piece for BrooklynVegan focusing on the tenth anniversary of Handwritten, the fourth studio album from New Jersey punk rockers The Gaslight Anthem. During my chat with frontman Brian Fallon, we talked about the band’s recent reunion following their 2015 hiatus and the potential for new music on the horizon. Well, the band have finally delivered on that promise with their first new single of original material since 2014’s Get Hurt. It’s titled “Positive Charge” and was recorded with Peter Katis (The National). According to Fallon:
“‘Positive Charge’ began as a message of joy to ourselves and to our audience. The central theme is about looking at the things you’ve come through and feeling like you want to go ahead with an open heart toward the future, believing that the best years are not behind any of us and that the good we have is worth something.”
Listen to “Positive Charge” here.
Farseek – Intent
Georgia quartet Farseek are set to release their upcoming EP next month. The four-track release is called Intent, it’ll be out on May 12th through Chillwavve Records, and it’s intricate alt-rock with shades of post-hardcore and an innate melodic sensibility. As guitarist, vocalist and producer Cameron told me over email: “Intent is about naming the moment during the collapse of the American empire and being fed up with endless excuses for racism and fascism.” Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Loma Prieta – “Glare”
After eight long years, we’re finally getting a new studio album from screamo mainstays Loma Prieta. They’ve given this record the ominous title of Last, and it arrives June 30th via Deathwish Inc. This will be the San Francisco quartet’s follow-up to 2015’s Self Portrait LP, which was an incredible record and my personal favourite in their discography. According to press details, Last seeks to “plumb the depths of the modern human experience through turbulence and tension” with unfurled rhythms, harsh melodies, and explosions of sonic violence. Sign me the fuck up. Check out the video for “Glare” below:
Half Man – Man Proposes, but God Disposes
This one comes hot off the presses. It’s the latest signing for the legends at Burning Hammer Records, and it’s Brisbane/Meanjin hardcore punk outfit Half Man. The group features members of Phantoms, Primitive Blast, World of Joy, Deathbed, and others, making for some real all-star shit. They’ve got their debut 7-inch, Man Proposes, but God Disposes (an insanely hard title), coming out on May 5th, and it’s a full-blown pipebomb of aggressive, unrelenting metallic hardcore. Think in the realm of acts like Nails, Gulch, All Pigs Must Die, etc., and you’ll know what’s up. Stream the title track here.
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2023 CUTS playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Voiid – Watering Dead Flowers
I first saw Brisbane/Meanjin quartet Voiid perform back in 2018, and I dug out my live review of that show for my initial impression: “With [frontwoman Anji] Greenwood channelling some Celebrity Skin-era Hole energy halfway through a set of roaring, grunge revival barn-burners, Voiid walk that fine line between sass and surf-punk, with a collection jangly riffs and unapologetic fem-power lyricism.”
Since then, I’ve watched the band’s profile rise steadily, with their sound described as alt-rock, garage-punk, riot-grrrl, post-punk, and everything in between. With the release of their long-awaited debut album, Watering Dead Flowers, out now through Damaged Records, it’s a glorious summation of the group’s journey since their formation all the way back in 2015.
In a fantastic feature with Everblack Media, influences like The Runaways, Juliana Hatfield, Beadaboobee, The Breeders, and Iggy Pop are namechecked, hinting at the diverse melting pot that went into forming the sound of Watering Dead Flowers:
“Drawing from diaristic source material, its songs are both headstrong and unsteady, calculating and vulnerable in the way they explore the defining relationships and emotions of young adulthood. The personal remains political, but the record’s strongest anchor is the unit of the band and the connection between its members, a sacred constant in the face of ever-shifting romantic and family dynamics.”
Stream here: Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
I’ve been listening to Southern rockers He Is Legend for over half my life, and they’re one of those rare bands that continue to get better with each and every release. So, to say I was excited to have the White Bat himself, Schuylar Croom—gothic crooner and throat-shredder supreme—on the pod is one hell of an understatement. If you’d like to hear Schuylar walk through “Kmart Parking Lot,” his monstrous, 18-track, 96-minute Hit List, then check it out in full below:
Additionally, outside of my freelance music industry shenanigans, I’ll be running two free online lectures next month on 2018’s Annihilation as part of my independent scholarly work, discussing how Alex Garland’s film adaptation:
“speaks directly to humanity’s fears of the natural world through themes of bereavement, trauma and transformation, juxtaposing hallucinatory images of human-animal chimeras and killer flora with the alien motivations of a nonhuman otherness.”
The lectures are part of the event calendar for Romancing the Gothic: a collection of “free-to-access classes, workshops and book clubs on anything Gothic, Romantic, Horror or adjacent.” Come along! It’ll be fun—trust me.