The Alt Weekly Roundup (2/21/22)
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
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.
Charlotte Cornfield – Audiotree Live
What luck that Charlotte Cornfield’s Audiotree session drops the week I really get into her latest LP. I love Highs in the Minuses’ soft but driving folk style and Cornfield’s evocative lyrics, and these live takes reframe muscular folk rock tracks like “Pac-Man” and “Headlines” as airier, rawer songs.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Two Houses – “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
If “dudes rock” was an actual genre it would probably sound like Two Houses. It’s anthemic in the same way that attracted people towards Japandroids over a decade ago with a bit of a different point of view. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” takes a look at what happens after sobriety and all the flooding of emotions with it. But those heavy lyrical themes are never sacrificed so as to make listening to Two Houses a chore. It instead reminds me of all of those great nights I’ve spent in dive bars with my friends throughout my twenties, soundtracked by a band like Two Houses.
Hugo Reyes | @hvreyes5
Foreign Hands – Bleed the Dream
Throwback metalcore is all the rage right now, from SeeYouSpaceCowboy to Wristmeetrazor — a fact that’s almost certainly been noted in every review of Bleed the Dream. What helps Foreign Hands stick out is that their new EP is quick, straight to the point, and heavy. They don’t mess around with gimmicks, they just get right to it: a breakdown here, a melodic chorus there, and get out. The truth of it is simple: a good song is a good song, whether it comes out in 2002 or 2022.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Heavenward – Staircase Music
With Teenage Wrist, Kamtin Mohager put out some of last decade’s foremost grungy shoegaze; when he left that band, they pivoted a bit to a poppier, more alt-rock direction. With the slew of singles he’s put out under the name Heavenward (no doubt a Hum reference), he’s picked up where he left off in Teenage Wrist. Staircase Music is the new project’s first full collection, ten stellar minutes of gauzy, hazy rock music. Closer “Cartwheels” is a particular standout, a song that sounds like a cut off the most recent Teenage Wrist LP in an alternate world where Mohager stuck around.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Isabelline – Welcome to the Dream
Isabelline’s wild new Welcome to the Dream dips its toes into everything. At a tight half hour, it’s an eclectic and fleeting mix of indie rock, post-hardcore, pop-punk, grunge, dream pop, and whatever else the Georgia-based five-piece feels like trying out.
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.
The Alternative is ad-free and 100% supported by our readers. If you’d like to help us produce more content and promote more great new music, please consider donating to our Patreon page, which also allows you to receive sweet perks like free albums and The Alternative merch.