The Alt Weekly Roundup (1/18)
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.
Dreamwell—”Sayaka”
Dreamwell aren’t messing around. “Sayaka,” the second single from their upcoming Modern Grotesque album is an absolute ripper. It has the tense, jumpy energy of early La Dispute with the intensity of screamo bands like Frail Hands.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Chastity—“Losing A Whole Year”
Yes, a Third Eye Blind cover in 2021. The structure of the original song is intact, but the twangy ‘90s affectation is gone and replaced with Chastity’s modern, melancholy sound. The result is a much more human version of the track, and all of a sudden lyrics from in 1997 feel like they were written for anyone who lost something over the last year, whether that be love or simply just time.
Madison Van Houten | @madisonvanhalen
Teenage Wrist—”Yellowbelly”
Teenage Wrist’s latest singles have suggested a shift in sound; their grungey, gazey style seemed to have been largely replaced by a sound more inspired by alternative rock bands like Third Eye Blind or Jimmy Eat World filtered through heavy fuzz. “Yellowbelly” is the latest of these, and perhaps the best.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Vaughns—“Raina”
If you’re from any circle of the New Jersey DIY scene, you get excited when The Vaughns announce anything new. I was fully expecting the usual (not that that was a bad thing), an upbeat song with a bright music video to match. Instead, they gave us a dreamy and romantic love song with “Raina”. The track was produced, mixed, and engineered by Joe Reinhart of Hop Along, and it’s inseparable from the black-and-white music video that’s a departure from anything they’ve done in the past. The combination of the two was beautiful and vulnerable enough to melt my ice cold heart.
Madison Van Houten | @madisonvanhalen
Bicycle Inn—”Poor Lake’s Camp”
The mix of melodic emo and post-hardcore isn’t novel, but it’s hard to pull off. Bicycle Inn do it impressively well on the heaviest song in their catalog. “Poor Lake’s Camp” has a fiery, screamed bridge that feels actually earned and gels surprisingly well with the catchier verses that precede it.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Beeline—”Past Perfect”
Technically this song dropped last March, but Beeline are gearing up to release a new project soon and this song may/may not be included on it so what the hell. This band from Richmond, VA play a type of kinda poppy, kinda punky, kinda slackery, but definitely tight-as-hell indie-rock that sounds ubiquitous on paper but really stands out in practice. Their single “Past Perfect” calls back to the obligatory references for this kind of thing (Pavement, Superchunk, etc.), but it’s got a FEST-approved oomph to it that I could imagine pairing well on a Menzingers bill. Give it a go.
Eli Enis | @eli_enis
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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