Rock – Page 24 – 7th Level Music

zzzahara is “In Your Head” with their new single.

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter zzzahara shares the new single/video, “In Your Head,” and announces their first North American tour dates in support of the new album, Spiral Your Way Out, out this Friday, January 10th, on Lex Records. Following recent single “It Didn’t Mean Nothing,” “In Your Head” features slowburn melodies and fuzzy shoegaze guitars with reeling riffs and heartsick lyrics evoking early Title Fight.

“In Your Head” was co-produced and written alongside former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh, re6ce). “Alex messaged me on Instagram one day and I ended up meeting up with him,” zzzahara says “I think we talked about a million things before we started working on music. Every time I work with him we just shoot the shit for an hour or so! We were geeking out on old school emo and all our hot takes on current artists. We also were nerding out on our favorite riffs and that’s how ‘In Your Head,’ was made. Alex is definitely one of my favorite guitar players. We worked for like 9-10 hours without eating. I’ll never forget how hungry I was.”

The accompanying video by Bethany Michalski pays homage to mid 2000s emo and punk videos a la Paramore and Fall Out Boy, reflecting zzzahara’s unabashed embrace of their formative emo and punk influences for the first time, revisiting artists like Bright Eyes and Broken Social Scene while going through a newly minted Elliott Smith era.

Watch/Stream “In Your Head”

Made in a three-month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, Spiral Your Way Out is in part a work of self-reclamation. With a broad church of influences, zzzahara’s vocal style and knack for earworm melodies act as a throughline without tying the album to a specific genre. There is a certain ease to zzzahara’s music that’s rooted in the ebb and flow of their life. They pick up the guitar and write every day, clinging to the most memorable riffs and melodies like lights in the dark. After a year of upheaval, zzzahara finally feels “calm.” The musical equivalent to going several rounds on a punching bag, Spiral Your Way Out finds solace between extremes. It licks its wounds in a place where pain and love, healing and abandon, sit side-by-side. If it has a message, it’s one of standing tall in your own shoes – scuffs and all.

Watch/Stream:
It Didn’t Mean Nothing”
“If I Had To Go I Would Leave the Door Closed Half Way”
“Ghosts”

Pre-order Spiral Your Way Out

zzzahara Tour Dates:
Wed. Jan. 15 – New York, New York @ Rough Trade (in-store)
Fri. Feb. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy Theatre
Wed. Feb. 26 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill (Noise Pop)
Thu. Feb. 27 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
Wed. Mar. 19 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
Thu. Mar. 20 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall
Fri. Feb. 21 – Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
Sat. Mar. 22 – Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo
Thu. Mar. 27 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Fri. Mar. 28 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Sat. Mar. 29 – Las Vegas, NV @ Swan Dive
Sun. Mar. 30 – Salt Lake City, UT @ International Bar
Tue. Apr. 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge
Thu. Apr. 3 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
Fri. May 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
Sat. May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
Sun. May 4 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Bling Pig
Mon. May 5 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Underground
Tue . May 6 – Montreal, QC @ L’Escogriffe
Wed. May 7 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
Fri. May 9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Sultan Room
Sat. May 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
Sun. May 11 – Washington, DC @ DC9
Tue. May 13 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings
Wed. May 14 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
Fri. May 16 – Miami, FL @ Gramps
Sat. May 17 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
Tue. May 20 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs)
Wed. May 21 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios
Thu. May 22 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Cloakroom tells the tale of “Bad Larry” with their new single.

For Cloakroom the world of modernity is in polycrisis and America has lost its soul. Narrative fetishism is all too usual of a literary mechanism for Cloakroom. If you listen closely you can hear the concern; not just for the teetering social structure but for what it means to be human and the high cost of the human experience.

The Indiana three return next month with their next studio album, Last Leg of the Human Table – the follow up to 2022’s post-apocalyptic space western Dissolution Wave, and label debut for Closed Casket Activities. Each song showcases Cloakroom’s genre-bending capabilities and seemingly vast array of influences; whether it be the sampling of the post-disco Detroit group Was (Not Was) or the lifted NASA recording of the humming of Saturn’s rings. Recorded in December of 2023 at Electrical Audio in Chicago and Rec Room Recording in Des Plaines, Illinois, engineer Zac Montez (Whirr, Turnover) aided in smoothing out the rough and turning up the quiet.

Pop, shoegaze, doom, post-punk, folk only scratch the surface on Cloakroom’s shortest yet most essential release to date. Its title Last Leg of the Human Table may sound sardonic in its nature, but this group has always found some wonder in the scurrying chaos of modern life. In 37 minutes, the album imbues a sense of responsibility to the listener as if one leg were to falter, the whole table will fall.

Today Cloakroom share lead single and video “Bad Larry”. Lyricist and guitarist Doyle Martin explains, “It was written about a fabled character out of folklore like ‘Diamond Joe’ composed by Baldwin ‘Butch’ Hawes.. if that’s who even wrote that song first. Bad Larry roams free and wants for nothing; living a life of experience and lives by his own rules and dying on his own terms; a life to vilify or envy.”

Last Leg of the Human Table sees its release February 28 via Closed Casket, pre-order / pre-save it here.

Listen / Share / Playlist “Bad Larry”

Watch Official Music Video Here

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Rewind Review: Windhand – Soma (2013)

I don’t know how I missed Windhand‘s Soma album until now. Shame on me because it’s another heavy, stunning part of their catalogue.

Garrett Morris‘ guitars on the first track, “Orchard,” sound like something is crawling out of the dirt while Dorthia Cottrell‘s vocals sound like they’re coming from a deep hole found under the floorboards of the cabin on the album cover as she contemplates death by gunshot – either hers or someone else’s.

Parker Chandler‘s bass crushes on “Woodbine,” a song about calling out to the devil out of desperation and the danger that comes with such a summoning. Morris’ guitar on “Feral Bones” is the sound of Rodan waking up from deep slumber inside a volcano. The song is about how time catches all of us sooner or later.

The acoustic “Evergreen” is a stunning showcase of Cottrell’s voice in a song about wishing a loved one could stay young, and alive, forever, but knowing that’s impossible. The massive “Cossack,” at over thirteen minutes long, has few lyrics, but no shortage of crushing riffs and spooky, heavy drumming from Ryan Wolfe. Morris’ guitar solo on it will stop you in your tracks.

Is that not enough doom for you? Well, the final track, “Boleskine,” is over a half-hour long. It stars with creepy wind sounds and simple acoustic guitar strumming, and then proceeds to come at you like the Blob or a Creeping Doom spell. You see and feel it coming, but you can’t stop it for about twelve minutes, when it drifts back into howling winds and lonely acoustic riffs. That’s just a fake-out, though, almost like a jump scare out of the shadows, because the massive riffs re-emerge from their sarcophagi and swarm you. It’s the kind of doom song that will overtake you.

The whole album will overtake you, but, as a doom fan, that’s what you wanted, right?

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 5 – 1

Here they are: My top five concerts of 2024. They were doozies.

#5: Slift – Reggie’s Music Joint, Chicago, IL, October 18, 2024

This was the first time I saw Slift in 2024, and the second time I’d seen them in a small venue. It had been a while since I’d been to a show at Reggie’s, and I’d forgotten how small it is. I figured Slift were going to blow off the back wall with their cosmic rock, and I was right. I don’t know how the building didn’t collapse.

#4: Osees – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, October 19, 2024

Yes, I saw Slift one night and then Osees the next. This was the second of two shows at Thalia Hall for Osees (another yearly tradition for them), and seeing them on a bare stage with a fun crowd in one of my favorite venues was outstanding. It was, as always, a blast and the pit crowd is like a reunion of pals you haven’t seen in a year.

#3: LCD Soundsystem – Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, May 26, 2024

It’s always good to see LCD Soundsystem, and this was night three of a four-night residency at the Aragon for them. It was also my girlfriend’s first time seeing them, and experiencing that with her was delightful. They had a nice tribute to Steve Albini during “Someone Great.”

#2: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Huntington Bank Pavilion, Chicago, IL, September 01, 2024

It had been a couple years since I’d been to a KGATLW show, and this was my first three-hour marathon set by them I was able to attend. Good grief, they slayed this stage, playing everything from Nonagon Infinity cuts to a short techno set. They even went longer than three hours by ending the show with a nearly twenty-minute version of “Head On / Pill.” The massive crowd was in heaven.

#1: Orbital – Radius, Chicago, IL, March 23, 2024

This show was like stepping into a time machine and emerging into a 1995 rave. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see Orbital, and they hadn’t been in Chicago in many years. This was also my girlfriend’s first “rave” of sorts, and the crowd was a mix of Gen Xers like us, new rave kids, goths, and even senior citizens. I hadn’t danced that much in a long while.

I’m looking forward to shows in 2025. I already have tickets to see Viagra Boys this year, and will soon have tickets for King Buffalo‘s current tour. Other bands I hope to catch this year are George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Mdou Moctar, Helmet, Kelly Lee Owens, Soft Play, Gang of Four, Amyl and The Sniffers, A Place to Bury Strangers (again), Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard (again), and Osees (again).

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 albums of 2024: #’s 5 – 1

We’ve reached the top of the peak. Who’s the grand champion? Read on to learn more.

#5: Fake Youth Cult – White Light / Black Noise

This stunning industrial / darkwave album is loud and heavy enough to cause the damage seen on this cover. This album came out of nowhere for me and about knocked me out of my chair.

#4: Maquina – Prata

Speaking of heavy damage, the cover to Maquina’s Prata album appears to feature a piece of steel that’s been shot, pried, scratched, and gouged. It’s a fitting image for a record full of wild noise punk, assaulting post-punk guitars, and grindhouse vocals.

#3: LAIR – Ngélar

This Indonesian funk / psych band was one of my top discoveries of 2024. They blend traditional Indonesian music with psych-rock, South Pacific juke, and other stuff you can’t quite define.

#2: GUM / Kenny Ambrose-Smith – Ill Times

Possibly the best collaboration of the year, this album combines the powers of two excellent Australians to create synth-psych that covers a lot of heavy topics with uplifting beats (i.e., the death of a parent – Kenny-Smith’s father, fear of the future and your place in it). I hope this isn’t just a one-time thing for them.

#1: A Place to Bury Strangers – Synthesizer

I mean, come on. One of my favorite bands creates an album that has a record sleeve that’s also a circuit board that you can turn into a real synthesizer that they also used to make the album. Only APTBS could pull off something like this and make an excellent record to go with it. It’s like a Moebius strip of post-punk psychedelic power that wallops you from the first note.

Onto 2025! Which albums are you anticipating the most?

Keep your mind open.

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Review: NORMANS (self-titled)

I’m not sure that NORMANS‘ self-titled album can be described by one genre. Post-punk? Yes. Noise rock? Sure. Gothic? At times. Intriguing? Definitely.

Lead singer (and bassist) Matthew Reid comes out swinging, and screaming, on “John Hockey,” while drummer Michael Rudes hits his kit so hard that it sounds like he was pissed about being stuck in traffic for an hour on the way to the studio. The guitars, from Kyle Souza and Collin Fish are all over the place, causing absolute chaos the whole time. In other words, they picked a perfect track to open the record.

“Shut Up I’m Shopping” is a great, angry slap at consumerism and the rat race. “Murder Rich” changes gears and drops you into dance-punk while Reid claims, “You’re a secondhand son of a bitch. You’re a car going over a cliff.” to let you know he’s not impressed with your wealth and knows your pursuit of it will only end in misery.

The drums and bass on “Anti-Crusoe” switch it up again, now taking us into Wall of Voodoo-like desert rock as Reid sings about forever being a wanderer (“I’m a beast without no home. I hate everything…So go on and touch me.”). “Firepower” is, interestingly, a bit low key compared to other tracks, although still loud and wild, preferring to subtly work in the back of your brain for most of it.

“Dead Snakes” gets a bit trippy with added vocal effects (mostly echoes) and the guitars sounding like they were recorded in an empty swimming pool on a space station. “Healing an Eyesore” is downright frightening, with Reid’s vocals sounding the most frantic on the whole album.

“Schloss Loss” adds a little krautrock to the mix, thumping with deep synth bass to nudge / shove you to the dance floor. “Bending the Branch” is great dance-punk with its strange guitar riffs, relentless bass, and frenzied drumming. Closing with “Fury on the Island,” NORMANS just go nuts for the finish. Souza and Fish sound like they’re using claw hammers on their guitars, Reid’s bass stomps around like an angry sumo wrestler, and you can practically feel Rudes’ sweat hitting your face as he wails on his kit.

It’s a wild record that will almost leave you breathless. Keep your eyes on these guys. They’re dangerous.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 10 – 6

Here we are at the top ten live shows I saw last year. Each one gets more intense. Read on!

#10: Osees – Hotel Vegas, Levitation Austin, November 02, 2024

Osees have been doing a four-night residency at Hotel Vegas during Levitation Music Festival for a couple years now. We caught them on night three, and the crowd was wild, possibly fired up by the spiked humidity and all the booze. I lost count of the number of crowd surfers at this show.

#9: The Damned – Concord Music Hall, Chicago, IL, June 02, 2024

I was not going to miss this tour. This was the lineup of The Damned I discovered in the early 1990s by seeing them on The Young Ones. For lack of a better expression, this is “my” version of The Damned. It was a great show in a packed venue that pretty much moshed non-stop for the last third of the set.

#8: Deap Vally – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, February 10, 2024

Speaking of shows I wasn’t going to miss, I sure wasn’t going to miss Deap Vally’s final (?) tour. The VIP meet and greet before their powerful set was also a must. I’d seen them twice before and somehow managed to meet them each time, so going out on the same note for me was a no-brainer. The were only five of us there, and they were gracious and wonderful as always. Their set included playing Sistrionix in its entirety and then a wild run through of other tunes. They left nothing on the table by the end.

#7: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL, February 22, 2024

When I saw Pigsx7 on their first U.S. tour, I knew right away that they were a band I would see at any opportunity. So, I caught their second show ever in Chicago and was again floored by the massive sound they create. It’s difficult to describe the power that hits you at one of their shows, and the crowd was mostly people who hadn’t been at their first show, so it was fun to see a lot of people having their unprepared minds blown.

#6: The Black Angels – Stubb’s BBQ, Levitation Austin, October 31, 2024

I hadn’t seen The Black Angels in too long, and this was my girlfriend’s favorite time seeing them. She’d fallen in love with their sound, so we managed to get up close and listen to them play Phosphene Dream in its entirety and then another long set of stuff from across their catalogue. They never fail to impress me, and they’re the band I’ve seen the most live (over a dozen times now, for certain).

Who’s in the top 5? Two bands I saw twice, another one of my girlfriend’s favorites, a three-hour-plus show, and another band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 albums of 2024: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached David Letterman’s favorite spot – the top ten. Let’s see who made the cut this year.

#`10: Dummy – Free Energy

This blast of shoegaze rock is bright in all the right spots and massive in all the others. I hadn’t heard them until 2024 and they ended up being my favorite shoegaze discovery of the year.

#9: New Age Healers – The Spin Out

This is cool psychedelia from the northwest. The album’s cover is indicative of what you experience while listening to it: A swirling mind trip down into strange places, or a mystical wind lifting you up from the ground and into the night sky. It’s your choice.

#8: Aaron Frazer – Into the Blue

Made after he transferred from the east coast to the west coast, Frazer created a second album of great, soulful R&B that’s both honoring and elevating the genre.

#7: Operator Music Band – Four Singles EP

It’s amazing this album even exists when you consider one of the band members nearly died after falling through a skylight before they were ever in the studio. The fact that they made a solid electro post-punk EP afterward is a testament to their commitment to each other.

#6: Meatbodies – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom

Meatbodies easily are one of the best bands I discovered in 2024. This album is a great mix of psychedelic and garage-punk that immediately left me wanting more from them. I was also lucky enough to see them live twice, and they crushed it each time.

Who’s in the top five? Come back tomorrow to see!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 15 – 11

The top 15 live shows I saw in 2024 range from doom metal to post-punk. Read on!

#15: The Well – Stubb’s BBQ – Levitation Austin, November 03, 2024

The Well never disappoint. They opened this night of metal at Levitation Austin’s main stage and set a high bar right away. The mix of older material with upcoming stuff from (hopefully) a new record landing this year was top notch.

#14: The The – Salt Shed, Chicago, IL, October 25, 2024

Here’s a band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see live. Matt Johnson returned with a new The The album and then a world tour. It was his first time in the U.S. in over two decades. They played two sets: The first being The The’s new album, Ensoulment, in its entirety and the second being a “time traveler’s set” of classic material. Johnson still sounds great.

#13: A Place to Bury Strangers – Stubb’s BBQ – Levitation Austin, October 31, 2024

Here’s another band who never disappoint. It was my girlfriend, Holly’s, first time seeing APTBS. I told frontman Oliver Ackermann (dressed, like his bandmates, as a vampire for Halloween) before the show that I envied her innocence. Her review? “I need a neck adjustment after that.” I don’t think I can sum it up better.

#12: Jon Spencer – Stockroom East, South Bend, IN, July 11, 2024

Holy $#!+. Jon Spencer and the rhythm section of The Bobby Lees played a forty-minute drive from my house. This small venue almost couldn’t handle their energy. The small crowd at this show got a great gift from them.

#11: Gang of Four – Far Out Lounge – Levitation Austin, November 01, 2024

Here’s another band I wasn’t sure I’d get to see live. This great set by Gang of Four was one of the top highlights of 2024’s Levitation Austin Music Festival for me. Everyone in this crowd was hyped to see them, and Jon King smashing a microwave with an aluminum ball bat was gold.

My top ten shows of 2024 include some old favorites and one final (?) tour. Come back tomorrow for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 20 – 16

The concerts keep getting wilder as the lists continue. Here’s the start of the top 20 live shows I saw in 2024.

#20: Iguana Death Cult – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, October 19, 2024

I’d never heard or seen these guys until they opened for Osees one night. That’s not an easy task for anyone, and they crushed it with their wild style of garage punk and trombone madness.

#19: The Sword – Stubb’s BBQ, Levitation Austin, November 03, 2024

The Austin hometown heroes returned for a rare reunion show to close out the Levitation Music Festival main stage, and the crowd went wild for them, often chanting songs with them like a medieval army off to knock down a fortified keep.

#18: Slift – Far Out Lounge, Levitation Austin, November, 01, 2024

This was my second time seeing Slift this year, and the crowd at this outdoor venue was jam packed into a small area that still had room for a crazy mosh pit. As usual, they blew everyone’s minds with their cosmic rock.

#17: Meatbodies – Reggie’s Music Joint, Chicago, IL, October 18, 2024

Damn, these guys are good. They played powerful psych rock that comes at you from all directions. Seeing them in a small venue like this was icing on the cake.

#16: Wine Lips – Parish, Levitation Austin, November 02, 2024

This was a bonkers way to end the third night of the Levitation Music Festival. Wine Lips put on a crazy show in a packed, humid venue that barely left room for walking, let alone moshing or crowd-surfing. They had many new fans after this, me included.

Who made it into the top 15? There’s one band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see live. Come back tomorrow to learn more!

Keep your mind open.

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