The Alt Weekly Roundup (5/11)
Posted: by The Editor
The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format. Albums, singles, videos, and live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Kississippi—”Kiss Me Thru The Phone”
“Kiss Me Thru the Phone” has become an anthem in the age of social distancing, and Kississippi’s breathy and subdued take is a worthy contemporary update. It’d be easy for a song like this to feel gimmicky, but Zoe Reynolds has more than enough swagger to pull it off.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Gregory Uhlmann—”Spice Girls”
“Spice Girls” has a way of stretching out time. The first single from Gregory Uhlmann’s upcoming Neighborhood Watch is comfortable enough to cozy up in for a while; his simple, hypnotic guitar loop digging deeper and deeper as strings and electronics begin to richly swell around it. It’s the kind of track that feels longer than it is in the best possible way.
Jordan Walsh | @jordalsh
An Autumn for Crippled Children—All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet
An Autumn for Crippled Children has quietly been producing some of the best black metal of the past decade, and the project’s seventh LP takes them far beyond the edges of the genre. All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet has as much alt rock, post-punk, and shoegaze in its DNA as it does trve kvlt, if not more. Strip away the vocals and you have Pitchfork’s next indie pop favorite.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Lil Tjay—State of Emergency
The new seven-song album from Lil Tjay is a somber yet hopeful report from the frontlines of Brooklyn drill. “Ice Cold” opens the project by addressing the grim state of affairs; kids dying in the streets, murder rates rising, jails overpopulating, cops misidentifying subjects—and that’s before the 19-year-old even mentions coronavirus. A verse from the late Pop Smoke feels bleak, considering his untimely death back in January was just the tip of the iceberg for a city in perpetual mourning. But Tjay proves himself as a resilient storyteller on here, and the many verses from fellow Brooklynites like Fivio Foreign, Sheff G, Sleepy Hallow, and J.I. The Prince of NY resemble a scene unifying in a time of great hardship.
Eli Enis | @eli_enis
TV Girl—The Night In Question: French Exit Outtakes
Electro-pop group TV Girl shared eight songs that they originally opted to omit from their album French Exit. These b-sides are exuberant, tart, and illuminated. The frayed, grainy “The Desolation Tango” tells the tale of an ephemeral romance bereft of closure.
Bineet Kaur | @hellobineet
Viva Belgrado—Bellavista
At one point Viva Belgrado was a screamo band, but now they’re something else. Bellavista is equal parts frenetic post-hardcore, contemplative balladry, and dreamy ambience, often within the same song. It feels like a challenge to every other band in Viva Belgrado’s scene: get on their level or get out of the way.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week our editor Lindsy Carrasquillo compiles a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We’ll post it on Fridays on Twitter and then include it in each edition of the ‘Weekly Roundup’ to make sure you don’t miss all of the great music we’re recommending.
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