Weekly Roundup: October 23rd
Weekly Roundup: October 23rd
Featuring Alkaline Trio, IDLES, Middle Kids, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Alkaline Trio – “Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs”
Punk rockers Alkaline Trio are returning with the impending release of their tenth studio album, Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs, which drops on January 26th via Rise Records. The trio have regrouped following frontman/guitarist Matt Skiba’s multi-year tenure in blink-182 (more on them in a bit) and have also recruited new drummer Atom Willard (Rocket from the Crypt, Angels and Airwaves, Against Me!, Social Distortion). The album is the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Is This Thing Cursed? and was recorded in Dave Grohl’s Studio 606—on that classic rock shit. Watch the video for the LP’s title track below:
ENOLA – All Is Forgiven
Naarm/Melbourne-based post-punk solo artist Ruby Marshall—who goes by the moniker ENOLA—is releasing their debut EP, All Is Forgiven, on November 3rd. The project mixes the cathartic and intense energy of ENOLA’s live shows with their background in electronic music production, fusing “the upfront poetry of Patti Smith, the melancholic atmospherics of Joy Division and the snarling conviction of IDLES” (more on them in a bit). Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
J.R. Slayer – “Parliaments”
Following the release of last year’s Not Rotten EP, alternative outfit J.R. Slayer are back with a shiny new single. “Parliaments” was recorded with Alex Estrada (Touche Amore, Joyce Manor, Nails), mastered by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip (Balance and Composure, Harm’s Way), and released through Yip’s label, Memory Music. It’s another catchy, indie-punk banger from Cody Votolato’s (The Blood Brothers, Head Wound City) latest project. Listen to “Parliaments” here.
Middle Kids – Faith Crisis Pt. 1
It’s been a wild year for Sydney alt-rockers Middle Kids. They’ve just finished a whirlwind North American run supporting Jimmy Eat World and Manchester Orchestra, and they’ll cap off 2023 alongside Bloc Party on the Perth date of their Australian tour. In addition to the live front, the trio announced their new LP, Faith Crisis Pt. 1, which will be released on February 16th. The album was recorded in the UK and co-produced by Tim Fitz and Jonathan Gilmore (The 1975, Beabadoobee). It serves as a lyrical search for meaning and identity inspired by lead singer Hannah Joy’s internal personal crisis. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Dead Poet Society – “I hope you hate me.”
L.A. rock quartet Dead Poet Society popped up on my radar last week. Their second album, Fission, arrives on January 26 via Spinefarm and is billed as a “13-track study of personal change and the turbulence of growth.” In the words of frontman Jack Underkofler, the record takes a “microscopic and broad look at the events that changed who we are.” Along with their LP announcement, the group dropped a double single release for “How Could I Love You?” and “I hope you hate me.”, with the latter addressing the messy deterioration and aftermath of said relationship. Listen to “I hope you hate me.” here.
IDLES – TANGK
It’s been a while since we heard from incendiary Bristol post-punks IDLES. The quintet’s upcoming record, TANGK (that’s “‘tank’ with a whiff of the ‘g’”), drops on February 16th through Partisan Records. The onomatopoeic record is pitched as a declaration of “love, joy, and gratitude for the mere opportunity of existence” in the face of our collective existential void. It follows 2021’s dark and moody Crawler and features another collaboration with rap producer Kenny Beats alongside co-producer Nigel Godrich and the band’s guitarist Mark Bowen. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
BRAT – “Social Grace”
What exactly is “bimbo-violence,” you ask? Or perhaps you prefer “barbie-grind”? Well, according to NOLA outfit BRAT—the latest addition to the Prosthetic Records roster—it’s a molten mix of blast beats, bass-laden breakdowns, old-school death metal, and NYHC-inspired hard riffs. Hell yeah. The band’s new single, “Social Grace,” is taken from their forthcoming debut album of the same name, with a proper announcement in the coming months. As the quartet states:
“The song is an environmental commentary on the effects of the wealthy on the state of our planet and further ties to the greater theme of our album that explores the various plights of mankind.”
Watch the video for “Social Grace” below:
Dream Unending & Worm – Starpath
In more stellar team-up news, we have a new collaborative LP from Dream Unending & Worm titled Starpath, billed by label 20 Buck Spin as a “towering release of cosmic duality.” The album follows Worm’s Blue Nothing EP and Dream Unending’s Song of Salvation LP from last year and finds both groups pushing their doom-laden tendencies into new sprawling areas, including frosty death metal, goth/post-punk elements, eerie melodies, and chilling atmospherics. As the label bio states, Starpath offers:
“Two bands, two unique approaches, a chasmic spectrum of light from radiant impassioned creation to the terminal abyssic darkness of oblivion.”
Stream the split LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
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.
blink-182 – One More Time…
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve already listened to One More Time..., the ninth studio album by legendary pop-punkers blink-182. The trio need little introduction and certainly aren’t angling for recommendations from the Substack set, but ah… yeah, here we are.
Much has already been made about the factors feeding into this record: the return of guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge following his departure from the band in 2015, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus receiving and recovering from a cancer diagnosis in 2021, drummer Travis Barker taking on producer duties in the shadow of icon and spiritual fourth member, Jerry Finn.
However, I want to suggest that this record is the true successor to the band’s career opus, 2003’s Untitled. Imagine, if you will, an alternate timeline where the band did not go on hiatus in 2005, where the outside influences and internal pressures that were vented into +44’s When Your Heart Stops Beating and Angels and Airwaves’ We Don’t Need to Whisper instead cohere into a mirror universe sixth blink album that sounds eerily like One More Time…. (For further justification on this thread and a spirited defence of 2011’s Neighborhoods, listen to our Deep Cuts episode on the untitled record here.)
Stream here: Spotify | YouTube
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
For the latest Deep Cuts episode of The Pitch pod, the affable Aaron Osborne (AGLO, Extortion, Burn the Hostages) joined the show to chat about the maniacal genius of NOLA legends Eyehategod and their unrelenting second studio album, Take As Needed for Pain (1993). If it’s tuned low and moving slow, Aaron can play it already and likely knows more about it than you do. We chat about writing Trek-themed death-doom, his adolescent fascination with Pantera, getting the call-up to join powerviolence royalty, and how Eyehategod changed his life forever. Check it out in full below: