Our inbox is over flowing again so we are letting you good people know exactly what is new and available out there in the music world. This week a return to some brutal hardcore and rock mixed in with some old timey country and good old punk rock. Kind of a mish mosh this week and a little less indie rock than normal. If you want to see your band on one of these lists, send us streaming music and as short bio.
Band Name: Grackles
BMN Score: 8.1/10
What the band says: The first single "San Antone" tells an alternate history of the town Noah and Jason Mozersky grew up in. Noah Lit on the song: “I wanted to tell a mystical noir story about a San Antonio that only existed in my high school imagination. San Antonio is about the nicest city one could ever hope to visit, but perhaps there’s a dark witchy undertone, Robert Johnson sold his soul to record in the Gunter Hotel downtown off the Riverwalk, what else could be hiding in its candle lit cobblestone alleys? Having Charlie Musselwhite play harmonica on the track is also a dream come true. Charlie has played harmonica on most of my favorite records, and he is truly an unbelievable player.”
What we say they sound like: It's a little bit Johnny Cash, a little bit Tom Waits, country swagger but with a little jazz swing to it. Gets a little soundtrack-ish like it was written for a Disney movie but I don't mean that as an insult, it's produced like it was made for something Hollywood related. It paints a great picture lyrically and sounds like a million bucks. If throwback 60's country mixed with a little Nightmare Before Christmas is your jam, you probably are going to love this.
Song to add to your playlist: San Antone
Band Name: The Problem With Kids Today
BMN Score: 7.9/10
What the band says: "Leather Jacket Blues" is a toe-tapping, pulse-pounding, tongue-in-cheek classic punk song. It exists somewhere between parody and pastiche, having a go at those that take themselves too seriously, the ones that with a straight face say “you can’t be a punk if you don’t have a felony“. At the same time it embraces that punk ethos that we all love, one of directness, honesty, and fun. Clocking in at a brisk 1:24, The Kids slam through the song at a frenetic pace, leaving no room for frills - or survivors. It was written in an afternoon following a short weekend tour. The band had noticed how much crowds responded to harder and faster songs. The Problem With Kids Today's Tate Brooks says "We wanted to dance and shout and bang into each other, so we wrote a song that does exactly that."
What we say they sound like: I'm never going to fault any band for being Ramones inspired. It's a simple lyrical concept, shouty vocals and two minutes of blissful limited chord punk rock. The bass that Rancid kind of riff going on. This I think could be considered partially post-punk if we are looking at vocal delivery. It's hard to screw up viseral simple punk rock and The Problem With Kids today are doing it right. Would love to hear what it grows into.
Song to add to your playlist: Leather Jacket Blues
Band Name: C.L.S.M.
BMN Score: 8.4/10
What the band says: While this is all three members of Coliseum, it’s not technically a new Coliseum album. 10 songs of blistering hardcore with unhinged vocals that deal with the chaotic insanity of everyday life in a world overrun with greed, self-infatuation, instant gratification, and ever-deepening class divisions, Infinity Shit is the perfect punk record for this moment and a hammer that shatters the facade of our daily reality.
What we say they sound like: This is the kind of stuff we don't get much of anymore. This band is defunct as of 2015 but even that seems like too late of a time period for this sound that captivated VFW halls for a few decades. I hadn't heard of this band before but as a hardcore kid in my youth this is the kind of stuff that will get you throwing elbows. Musically it's hard to dissect, it's like a chainsaw, it just is pulsing grit for 2 minutes of intense drum, guitar, and bass blasting you in the face with a great gritty cigarette smoke soaked gutteral screams. What else would you want from your hardcore?
Song to add to your playlist: Hammer Through The Windshield
Band Name: The Sleeping Souls
BMN Score: 9.3/10
What the band says: aced with spiraling riffs and highly charged vocals, the band’s new single, “Scared Of Living,” is a punk-rock firecracker which illuminates the vibrant, vital quality of the album from which it is taken. A song about this Orwellian world we find ourselves living in, it finds a band dwelling on how the age of the Internet is directly impacting who we are. “Living your life through cameras and apps isn’t living,” the band explains. “Everyone is trying to live up to a version of themselves that doesn’t really exist in the real world, and you can’t have your own opinions for fear of being lambasted publicly. Even though we’ve moved forward technologically, old institutions still inform everything we do. We need to break free, but at what cost?”
What we say they sound like: To me this is Stone Temple Pilots maybe with a little Foo Fighters mixed in which surprised me. The band lists bands like Radiohead, Death Cab For Cutie and others as influences when all I hear is early 90's Alternative Rock and Grunge in their sound. Vocally it's a little bit like Richard Patrick of Filter singing a song written by the Foo Fighters but performed by Failure and STP. The influence of those direct components feels very present, but it might just be this specific song. It definitely harkens back to those days when you expected a big bombastic rock song to be the single that radio was spinning and this certainly sounds like that.
Song to add to your playlist: Caught Up In The Scrape
Band Name: Dead Days
BMN Score: 9.1/10
What the band says: Take the emotional capacity and angst of an iconic emo ballad and set it to the tune of progressive metalcore; that is Dead Days’ new single “Death Song.” It’s the cathartic follow-up to “Past Life,” which was released earlier this summer. While experimenting with electronic flourishes throughout “Past Life” - think recent Motionless In White releases - the band delivers a more straight-forward, in-your-face metalcore anthem with “Death Song,” allowing the rebellious nature of the lyrical content to speak for itself.
What we say they sound like: Sing along to the sound of your death. Does it get any more badass then that when you're in a mood to smash stuff. This is exactly what you want to play over and over in your head when some Karen is asking to talk to the manager where you work or while your dumb boss is muttering on and on. Immature? maybe but there is a need for brutality in music. This kind of music exists to give emotional release to legions of adoring teenage fans but I feel like us old hardcore gals can appreciate it still. We may strain our backs in the pit nowadays but it's worth it.
Song to add to your playlist: Death Song