The Alt Weekly Roundup (8/25/25)
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, live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
The Penske File – “Lions”
“Lions” is the lead single from The Penske File’s upcoming fifth LP Reprieve. It’s a slightly sweeter take on Ontario trio’s usual punk rock, a bit more anthemic and a bit less rough around the edges. Guitarist/vocalist Travis Miles notes that the album was “a conscious effort to branch out: to arrange songs that are reminiscent of what turned us on to punk rock in the first place, but also to craft others that are so far removed from that sonic landscape,” and “Lions” is an exciting first taste.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Hundreds of AU – Life in Parallel
Life in Parallel is an album of firsts for New Jersey screamo band Hundreds of AU: it’s their first release on Iodine Records, and it’s their first as a five-piece with new frontman Brian Burdzy. The band sounds appropriately revitalized here, as Life in Parallel is unrelenting both sonically and thematically. “We are the plague,” begins the breakneck “Bloodthirsty”; the whiplash-inducing “Methodist” turns on a dime from knuckle-dragging hardcore to spacious interludes and as Burdzy barks about “purity smothered by our own greed.” Hundreds of AU is made up of legendary figures of the screamo and post-hardcore scenes (and features cameos from others, like Thursday’s Geoff Rickly), and the highest compliment one can pay Life in Parallel is that, for as much as they sound like veterans, the album’s got the hunger of a young band eager to prove themselves.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Dispirited Spirits – “Counting Raindrops”
Portuguese art rock project Dispirited Spirits pulls influences from shoegaze, jazz, post-rock, and prog to create something that resembles none of the above. “Counting Raindrops” might be the most accessible version of that sound yet, a swelling and effortlessly catchy single that manages to capture what makes Dispirited Spirits so special–even as it’s the band’s second-shortest song to date.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Dreams of Being Dust
In retrospect, Illusory Walls was a sendoff to the earlier incarnation of The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, the version that blended emo and post-rock over stirring odes to community. Dreams of Being Dust, the band’s fifth album, doubles down on the prog influences that Illusory Walls hinted toward and throws in some genuine metal for good measure (“Dimmed Sun,” “Beware the Centrist,” “Captagon”). The more aggressive style matches the bleak subject matter: genocide (“Oubliette”), lack of healthcare (“Reject All and Submit,” “December 4th, 2024”), uncaring politicians (“Beware the Centrist”). Even love, the animating force of the band’s previous albums, is reduced here to “loss before it happens“; there’s that saying that every cynic is just a disappointed idealist–Dreams of Being Dust epitomizes it. Once they sang about reclaiming the power to “make evil afraid of evil’s shadow,” but now the best we can hope for is to wait for the end, “high on captagon.”
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Noisy – “Grenadine”
On The Noisy’s new single “Grenadine,” the Philly band goes a little retro. It’s slow, smooth, and smoky, accented by trumpets.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week we compile a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.
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