The Alt Weekly Roundup (8/10)
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.
Tough Age—Which Way Am I?
The new record from Toronto’s Tough Age finds peppy, sweet harmony somewhere between The Buzzcocks, The B-52’s, and The Feelies. These songs are taut, minimal, and motorik in the way of post-punk, but they have sweet melodies and really wiry strumming patterns that give them a soft, inviting edge. Highlights are “Consequences” (that bass solo) and “Repose” (its near-dream-pop vocal delivery and a tense, elongated jam section).
Eli Enis | @eli_enis
The Fall of Troy—Mukiltearth
Call it a comeback. After self-releasing OK in 2016, The Fall of Troy are back with Mukiltearth, which sees them seamlessly blending their past and present. The first six tracks are re-recordings of some of the band’s earliest songs (from when they were still known as the 30 Years War); the last four were newly written by the original lineup. The sonal shift in “Counting Sheep,” the first of the new songs, is impossible to miss; drummer Andrew Forsman recorded his part first, and it’s the furious, driving beat that’s on display here. By the time it fades into “Round House,” which sees the band at their most proggy, shifting in and out of time signatures like they’re afraid to leave any out, you’ll be completely picking up what Mukiltearth is putting down.
Michelle Bruton | @MichelleBruton
Winter—Endless Space (Between You & I)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen album art illustrate the sound of an album better than Winter’s Endless Space (Between You & I). Its blend of rainbow-colored dream pop and shimmery shoegaze makes me feel like I’m riding a unicorn through space, and I think we could all use that kind of dreamy escape right now.
Jami Fowler | @audiocurio
Spirit Night—”Dammit” (blink-182 Cover)
Nobody likes you when you’re 23—unless, of course, you happen to be the platinum blink-182 record Dude Ranch, released in 1997 and still beloved today. Dude Ranch got a second and much more inclusive life on Friday with the release of It’s Never Over Til It’s Done – A blink-182 Covers Comp. The album features names like Joyce Manor, Retirement Party, and Adult Mom, and 100 percent of proceeds go to organizations and funds providing aid to Black trans communities. The deck was already stacked in Spirit Night’s favor for landing arguably the best Dude Ranch track in “Dammit,” but the painstaking care and palpable emotion Dylan Balliett poured into reimagining the song propels it into a stratum all its own. The bright, full synth recalls the New Wave sound of General Public or Bowie, but the guitar arrangement and Balliett’s earnest, braying vocals feel right at home in the post-2010 emo landscape, fitting for the former member of The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die. “Dammit” is at its core painfully wistful, mature in a way blink-182 doesn’t always seem to know how to handle. Balliett does.
Michelle Bruton | @MichelleBruton
Glass Animals—”It’s All So Incredibly Loud”
Glass Animals’ introspective third album, Dreamland, focuses on existential questions and the loss of innocence. A highlight in particular is the haunting “It’s All So Incredibly Loud” that opens with entrancing, rhythmic drums and ghostly vocals. Detailing circumstances where you say something and instantly regret it, the track acts like an abstract interpretation of the three seconds that lapse in between the words leaving your mouth and registering in your mind as they wound another person. Being the most fluid single off the record, it’s hard not to gravitate towards its presence every time you turn on this woozy Glass Animals record.
Hope Ankney | @hope_ankleknee
Save Face—”Pour (redux)”
“Pour” was always the softest song on Save Face’s debut Merci, but this reworked version dubbed “Pour (Redux)” shows the band’s even softer side. It’s a beautiful piano-based ballad that reminds us why Save Face are not only one of the best rock bands around, but can also churn out some of the prettiest songs in the genre.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Coupons—”Moz Disco”
It’s been 4-years since indie-rock band Coupons released an album, and they’re set to drop their sophomore record, Up & Up, just next month. Lead single, “Moz Disco” definitely leads with a hazy indie-rock tone that only warms the longer it plays. It acts like a sunny-side-up to the band’s discography. Reminding me fully of days where I rode top-down with the sun’s rays baking my car, its golden musicality and airy vocals just bubble with fun. If they were aiming for a perfect soundtrack to the waning of summer, they hit it out of the park.
Hope Ankney | @hope_ankleknee
bedbug—life like moving pictures
The lo-fi bedroom pop act bedbug returned last week with a new album life like moving pictures, a wonderfully warm refinement of the mumbly sound that first caught my attention on their 2018 release I’ll count to heaven in years without seasons. Songs like “love & everything after” rest in a gentle glow, with a sentimental, intimate awe that recalls Strange Ranger’s Daymoon. Interpolating snippets from old television shows, recordings of anti-facist lectures, and spoken-word existential musings, life like moving pictures sounds like a glimmering collage of a little world in itself.
Jordan Walsh | @jordalsh
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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