Post-punk – Page 20 – 7th Level Music

Squid release “Padding” ahead of their new album due May 7th.

Earlier this year, Squid announced the release of their much-anticipated debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th via Warp Records. Today, they present a new single, “Paddling,” which follows the release of “Narrator” (feat. Martha Skye Murphy), and announce an onlineperformance as part of the official British Music Embassy SXSW showcase, airing Friday, March 19th at 6pm CDT.

“Paddling” has long been a staple of Squid’s incendiary live show. This psych-motorik stomper is a reaction to being thrust into an adult world as friends suddenly turn their focus to careers. Built around a drum machine loop and pulsing synth line, sonic details pepper the track as it lurches between dynamic movements. All the while, the band members share vocal duties with an infectious ease and confidence. Squid elaborates: “Written from two different perspectives, ‘Paddling’ is a song about the dichotomy between simple pleasures and decadent consumerism. Recounting a familiar scene from The Wind in the Willows, the song reminds us that although we are humans, we are ultimately animals that are driven by both modern and primal instincts, leading to vanity and machismo around us in the everyday.”

Listen to Squid’s “Paddling”

Bright Green Field is an album of towering scope and ambition that endlessly twists down unpredictable avenues. Each member – Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Oliver Judge(drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/ percussion), Laurie Nankivell(bass/brass) and Anton Pearson (guitars/vocals) – played an equal, vital role in the album’s creation. Written in Judge’s old local pub and recorded in producer Dan Carey’s London basement studio, it includes field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.

Squid’s music – be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing – has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in. As an album title, Bright Green Field conjures an almost tangible imagery of pastoral England. However, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Although the geography of Bright Green Fieldis an imaginary cityscape built from monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration.

Watch the “Narrator” feat. Martha Skye Murphy Video

Pre-order Bright Green Field

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Kalbells and Miss Eaves team up on new single – “Pickles.”

Kalbells—the collaborative art-pop project of Kalmia Traver, Angelica Bess, Sarah Pedinotti, and Zoë Brecher—today shared their new single “Pickles,” a fun and buoyant track featuring multimedia artist/rapper Miss Eaves off the upcoming full-length, Max Heart, releasing March 26 via NNA Tapes.

The wordplay-laden track debuted today via FLOOD Magazine, where Traver shared some thoughts: “The song is about escaping a romantic pickle by grudgingly accepting getting one’s ego chopped down, or at least chopped back…. and then realizing the whole experience can be kind of fun, sadistically, but also existentially thrilling and weirdly healing. For the second verse Miss Eaves and I had a long conversation about fuckbois and then she turned around this glistening cave of pickle puns and our mouths all dropped to the floor and we all fell in love with her.”

The sophomore album from Kalbells, illustrates the formidable love Kalmia Traver (Rubblebucket) discovered with her touring band turned bandmates. Together, Angelica Bess (Giraffage, Body Language), Zoë Becher (Hushpuppy, Sad13), Sarah Pedinotti (Okkervil River, LipTalk) and Traver, practice both listening and accountability, rejoicing in their queerness, and promoting each other to be their most genuine selves. The result is Max Heart—ten vibrant and subtly layered tracks of mesmerizing psychedelic synth-pop. Common groove language is a rare medicine to happen across, which is why, as a group, playing together has been not only exciting, but healing. Max Heart harnesses this magnetic power for a collection of songs that are packed with inspired tension and daring surreality. Read the full bio here.

Max Heart is available to pre-order on standard black & “Salty Pickle” green vinyl, as well as on compact disc and digital formats here. The album will be available on “Red Marker” red vinyl exclusively from local indie record stores.

Tracklist

1. Red Marker
2. Flute Windows Open In The Rain
3. Purplepink
4. Poppy Tree
5. Hump The Beach
6. Pickles
7. Bubbles
8. Big Lake
9. Diagram Of Me Sleeping
10. Max Heart

Links
instagram.com/morekalbells
twitter.com/annakalmia
facebook.com/kalbells
kalbells.bandcamp.com

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[Thanks to Cody at Clandestine PR.]

Dry Cleaning’s new single elicits “Strong Feelings” ahead of debut album due April 02, 2021.

London-based band Dry Cleaning – Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) – announce their debut album, New Long Leg, out April 2nd on 4AD, and present a new single/video, “Strong Feelings.” Buoyed by the universal acclaim they received for 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, the foursome spent more and more of their lives on tour, refining their craft even further. The intensive time they spent together meant they developed a near-psychic knowledge of how to leave the right amount of space for each other in their songs. The resulting New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, forcing a swift end to their US tour, Dry Cleaning had their new songs demoed, but had to bide their time before they could enter the studio. They contributed a few new recordings – one being last year’s “Scratchcard Lanyard” – passing a Tascam four-track cassette recorder to one another from the window of Maynard’s car, cleaning it with antibacterial wipes before recording their parts one by one. Facilitated by the unexpected time apart and the introspection of lockdown, Buxton started experimenting with drum machines, Dowse with a noisier, more deconstructed guitar sound, Maynard with subtler and more flexible basslines.

By June John Parish had emerged as the perfect producer and was keen to explore these creative developments. The band holed up with him at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales for two weeks, finding this isolation from the outside world “liberating,” as Buxton puts it. They got on well with Parish, buoyed by his enthusiasm, directness, and full-bodied commitment, and he was unafraid to push them when he sensed a song could be refined or taken in a different direction. “It’s not just sheer pent-up energy all the time in the way that the first two EPs were,” adds Shaw of the resultant album. “I feel more confident with leaving gaps.”

There’s tension when they duel with one another, satisfaction when they move in snaking tandem, and breathless anticipation when she steps back for a moment to let the music build. She’s constantly speeding up and slowing down, alliterating, repeating, rhyming, umming, erring and stuttering with pinpoint accuracy. These methods are prevalent in new single “Strong Feelings.” A love song of sorts, Shaw says, “it’s about secretly being in love with someone who doesn’t know it, and Brexit’s disruptive role in romantic relationships.” Its accompanying visuals, directed by guitarist Dowse, came about after Google searches brought together an informational video on road building basics from New Zealand and Massachusetts-based glitch artist, Sabato Visconti.

Watch Dry Cleaning’s Video for “Strong Feelings”

Firm friends for years, Dry Cleaning only started making music after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with until six months later Florence Shaw, a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher by day – with no prior musical experience – turned up to a band rehearsal with a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music. Shaw extracts the most immense meaning from the most trivial things; she peppers the songs with a thousand tiny details, little witty asides about supermarkets, cupboards, beauty products and body parts add up to sonic landscapes that teem with the strange magic of ordinary life.

Watch the “Scratchcard Lanyard” Video

Pre-order New Long Leg

New Long Leg Tracklist
1. Scratchcard Lanyard
2. Unsmart Lady
3. Strong Feelings
4. Leafy
5. Her Hippo
6. New Long Leg
7. John Wick
8. More Big Birds
9. A.L.C
10. Every Day Carry

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Psymon Spine release “Channels” from upcoming new album.

Today, Psymon Spine are sharing their new single “Channels,” a cathartic foray into punk for the dance/psych outfit and final preview from their sophomore full-length, Charismatic Megafauna, releasing February 19th on Northern Spy.

“Channels” premiered with FLOOD Magazine who praised the track as “boisterous, colorful” and shared further insight from member Noah Prebish: “We spend the majority of our time in Brooklyn, NY absorbing energy, stress, and excitement, then go into the middle of nowhere to process all of those feelings through writing/recording. The lyrics came from this analogy of the creative mind being a map with various bodies of water scattered throughout (each body of water representing some area of interest, skill, or trait), and how as an artist our job is to daily cultivate and irrigate this land, making sure every part is getting enough water and that no part is getting flooded. I had initially planned on delivering the lyrics in a more laidback/spoken manner, but as we kept tracking everyone kept telling me to push it further each time, and when we finally got the best take I was screaming my guts out — I literally could taste blood. It ended up working out just how it was supposed to and gave the song this totally different energy that I had initially expected, and I’m so glad for that.”

Fusing psychedelic pop and the deep grooves of dance music, Psymon Spine’s music oozes with melodic hugeness—but the places this Brooklyn electronic pop outfit takes their songs is truly out there, exploring complicated feelings through a singular approach to left-of-center dance sounds. Only a year ago, band members Noah and Sabine were playing in the dream-pop group Barrie, who broke out following a string of buzz-making singles, but Charismatic Megafauna proves that Psymon Spine are on a different journey, exploring sounds ranging from disco to early techno and motorik’s incessant pulse. Psymon Spine put their own addictive stamp on the sounds of the past, with surprises at every turn and the type of lush synth work that could only come from brilliant students of dance music. Reflecting optimism and catharsis, Charismatic Megafauna is a heady trip through left-field pop that packs its own emotional wallop. Read the full bio here.

Charismatic Megafauna is available to preorder from Northern Spy, and a special EU/UK edition of the LP is available via Dinked Edition.

Upcoming Shows
Feb 19: The Lot Radio
(DJ Set) 2PM ET/11AM PT

Feb 25: Baby’s All Right’s Baby TV
(Album Release Show w/ Hypoluxo) 8PM ET/5PM PT

Mar 01: Dublab
(DJ Set) 3PM ET/12PM PT

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[Thanks to Cody at Clandestine PR.]

Squid announce debut album and release its first single – “Narrator.”

Over the last eighteen months, Squid has become one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the UK. Today, they announce their eagerly awaited debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th on Warp Records, and lead single/video, “Narrator” feat. Martha Skye Murphy. Produced by Dan Carey, Bright Green Field is an album of towering scope and ambition that endlessly twists down unpredictable avenues. Each member – Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Oliver Judge (drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/ percussion), Laurie Nankivell (bass/brass) and Anton Pearson(guitars/vocals) – played an equal, vital role in the album’s creation.

Leading into their debut full-length, Squid have been A-listed by BBC Radio 6Music, garnered praise fromPitchfork, Stereogum, The Guardian, NME, The Quietus, FADER, Paste and more. Following the release of singles “Houseplants,” “Sludge,” “The Cleaner,” “Broadcaster,” and the Town Centre EP, Bright Green Field is completely new, a nod to the band’s emphasis on perpetual forward motion.

Bright Green Field was initially written in Judge’s old local pub and recorded in Carey’s London basement studio. It features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.

Squid’s music – be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing – has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in. As an album title, Bright Green Field conjures an almost tangible imagery of pastoral England. However, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. There’s a push-pull element to this album, present sonically in its tension and release approach, as well as thematically and lyrically. Within the geography of Bright Green Fieldlies monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions plucked from imagined cities. “This album has created an imaginary cityscape,” says Judge, who writes the majority of the lyrics. “The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous releases were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this album is darker and more concerned with place – the emotional depth of the music has deepened.”

Lead single “Narrator” ricochets from funk strut to screeching chaos via the melodic touch of guest vocalist Martha Skye Murphy. As described by the band, “‘Narrator’ was inspired by the 2019 film A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The song follows a man who is losing the distinction between memory, dream and reality and how you can often mold your memories of people to fit a narrative that benefits your ego. Martha Skye-Murphy made the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than not, a male who wishes to portray women as submissive characters in their story. After some discussions with Martha she thought it’d be a good idea that she play the part of the woman wanting to break free from the dominating story the male has set.”

Squid’s first ever official video, directed by Felix Green, shows the micro-components of a 3D design. “I had wanted to make a video about the virtual creation process for some time. I often think this ‘behind the digital curtain’ part of 3D design looks more interesting than the final finished product since it conveys a process and an authorship,” says Green. “When I was approached to pitch on ‘Narrator’ I immediately thought it could be the perfect match for this very visual idea.”
Watch Squid’s Video for “Narrator” feat. Martha Skye Murphy
For all the innovative recording techniques, evolutionary leaps, lyrical themes and ideas underpinning Bright Green Field, the album is also a joyous and emphatic record that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration.
Pre-order Bright Green Field

Bright Green Field Tracklist
1. Resolution Square
2. G.S.K
3. Narrator feat. Martha Skye Murphy
4. Boy Racers
5. Paddling
6. Documentary Filmmaker
7. 2010
8. The Flyover
9. Peel St
10. Global Groove
11. Pamphlets

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Yard Act warn of “Dark Days” with new single.

Emerging Leeds outfit Yard Act have today shared their new single “Dark Days” – out via their own Zen F.C. label. Following their debut 7” Fixer Upper / The Trapper’s Pelts, which sold out its entire 500 copy pressing on the day of release, the band announced the Dark Days / Peanuts double A-side yesterday and sold out 1000 copies in just under 2 hours. In signature Yard Act fashion, “Dark Days” propels frontman James Smith’s striking social observations forward along with steadfast guitar lines and jutting rhythms. Recorded in the same session as “Peanuts” with Ross Orton, “Dark Days” rounds off the opening chapter of Yard Act’s strange lockdown existence before they head off to record their debut album.

LISTEN: to Yard Act’s “Dark Days” on YouTube

Smith explains: “With ‘Dark Days’ I wrote the first verse and chorus hook quite fast but then I didn’t know how to finish it. The demo Ryan sent was ace, real sparse. The drums were really driven but the bassline felt like it was suspended mid air in the verses, like a dub bassline or something. It created the illusion that you have time to stop and look around amidst the ensuing chaos. It’s like in war films when all the noise stops and you just hear the protagonist heavy breathing whilst they survey their surroundings in slow motion. Then the chorus hit with this ‘Captain Caveman’ vibe, it reminded me of that stop-motion cartoon from the 90’s ‘GOGS’ if anyone remembers that? I liked the juxtaposition of the bleak world with the cartoon bass line.”

“Despite all the advances humanity has made, the threat of devolving feels increasingly possible in the modern world, and on my bad days when I’m spiralling I can’t help but get trapped in my own head envisioning this post-apocalyptic future we’re seemingly headed toward, so fuck knows why I decided to watch ‘Children of Men’ when I was feeling like that. If I’d fully remembered what happened in it, I don’t think I would’ve in the middle of a pandemic, but I did, and I actually came away feeling really uplifted by the ending. I saw hope in it, and it helped me finish the story.”

Yard Act formed in Leeds in late 2019 when Ryan Needham found himself temporarily living in James Smith’s spare bedroom. The two had been pub associates for years, but their new living circumstances served as a catalyst for their friendship and creative partnership which saw them fuse James’ interest in spoken word with Ryan’s primitive proto-punk demos using an ancient drum machine and borrowed bass guitar.

Yard Act’s rise since arriving in March 2020 with debut track “The Trapper’s Pelts” has been nothing short of extraordinary, even without the opportunity to showcase their incendiary live set. Their first releases last year proved an instant hit with national newspapers (The Observer, The Times, The Independent, and The Guardian) and radio stations (BBC Radio 6 Music (“Fixer Upper” and “Peanuts” were both daytime playlisted), BBC Radio 1 and Radio X) alike. The band rounded off 2020 with spots on the NME 100, Dork HYPE List, The Daily Star ‘Ones to Watch 2021’, Gigwise ‘21 for 21’, and Selector Radio’s ‘New Wave Artists 2021’. Single ‘Fixer Upper’ landed on Loud & Quiet and So Young Magazine’s ‘Tracks of the Year’, while “Peanuts” earned a place as BBC Introducing West Yorkshire Track of the Week, as well as being playlisted at NME, So Young, and The Independent alongside appearing on the cover of ‘The Punk List’ and ‘Hot New Bands’ at Spotify.

“Dark Days” is out now on Zen F.C. It is available here

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

CHAI call us to “Action” on first single from upcoming album – “WINK.”

Japanese quartet CHAI are thrilled to announce their new album, WINK, out May 21st on Sub Pop. Ahead of its release, they present lead single/video “ACTION.” Their third full-length and first for Sub Pop, WINK contains CHAI’s mellowest and most minimal music, and also their most affecting and exciting songwriting by far. WINK is a fitting title then: a subtle but bold gesture. A wink is an unselfconscious act of conviction, or as CHAI puts it: “A person who winks is a person with a pure heart, who lives with flexibility, who does what they want. A person who winks is a person who is free.” YUUKI noted that “With this album, we’re winking at you. We’re living freely and we hope that when you listen, you can wink and live freely, too.”

CHAI is made up of identical twins MANA (lead vocals and keys) and KANA(guitar), drummer YUNA, and bassist-lyricist YUUKI. Following the release of 2019’s PUNK, CHAI’s adventures took them around the world, playing their high-energy and buoyant shows at music festivals like Primavera Sound and Pitchfork Music Festival, and touring with indie-rock mainstays like Whitney and Mac DeMarco. Like all musicians, CHAI spent 2020 forced to rethink the fabric of their work and lives. But CHAI took this as an opportunity to shake up their process and bring their music somewhere thrillingly new. Having previously used their maximalist recordings to capture the exuberance of their live shows, with the audiences’ reactions in mind, CHAI instead focused on crafting the slightly-subtler and more introspective kinds of songs they enjoy listening to at home—where, for the first time, they recorded all of the music. Amidst the global shutdown, CHAI worked on Garageband and traded their song ideas—which they had more time than ever to consider—over Zoom and phone calls, turning their limitations into a strength.

While the band leaned into a more personal sound, WINK is also the first CHAI album to feature contributions from outside producers (Mndsgn, YMCK) as well as a feature from Chicago rapper-singer Ric Wilson. CHAI draw R&B and hip-hop into their mix (Mac Miller, the Internet, and Brockhampton were on their minds) of dance-punk and pop-rock, all while remaining undeniably CHAI. Whether in relation to this newfound sense of openness or their at-home ways of composing, the theme of WINK is to challenge yourself.

Lead single “ACTION” was a response to watching the Black Lives Matter protests unfold across America and the world in June of 2020 while the band was in Japan.
“Seeing how the world came together during the protests really moved me,” said YUUKI. “I wanted to dedicate that song to the year of action.” The band further elaborates: “The world as we know it has changed, but even with that, it’s still a world where nothing really changes. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there more ACTION rooted in happiness? Be the change that you want to see!…I’m going to be the pioneer in seeing the world I want to see, meeting the people I want to meet! We start off by expressing the fun in ACTION with this music video♡ Why don’t you join us?! It’s that type of song♡.”

WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “ACTION”

CHAI came to see WINK—with its home-y feel—as a collection where each song is like a new friend, something comforting to rely on and reach out to, as the album was for them throughout 2020. This impulse towards connection is in WINK’s title, too. After the “i” of PINK and the “u” of PUNK—which represented the band’s act of introducing themselves, and then of centering their audiences—they have come full circle with the “we” of WINK. It signals CHAI’s relationship with the outside world, an embrace of profound togetherness. Through music, as CHAI said, “we are all coming together.” In that act of opening themselves up, CHAI grew into their best work: “This album showed us, we’re ready to do more.”
WATCH THE “DONUTS MIND IF I DO” VIDEOWATCH THE “PLASTIC LOVE” VIDEO

PRE-ORDER WINK

WINK TRACKLIST
1.Donuts Mind If I Do
2. Maybe Chocolate Chips (feat. Ric Wilson)
3. ACTION
4. END
5. PING PONG! (feat. YMCK)
6. Nobody Knows We Are Fun
7. It’s Vitamin C
8. IN PINK (feat. Mndsgn)
9. KARAAGE
10. Miracle
11. Wish Upon a Star
12. Salty

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Top 40 albums of 2016 – 2020: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached the “David Letterman” moment – the top 10 albums of records I’ve reviewed in the last five years. Shall we begin?

#10: Priests – The Seduction of Kansas (2019)

This post-punk album is as sharp as a straight razor and as sexy as a femme fatale wielding that razor. Priests call out toxic masculinity, the changed political climate that arose from the Trump administration, and rich elitism with a mixture of snark, shredding, and, yes, seduction. Priests amicably split up after this. I hope they’ll put out new material someday, but they went out on a high note if not.

#9: The Besnard Lakes – A Coliseum Complex Museum (2016)

Easily the lushest album on this list, A Coliseum Complex Museum is full of soaring psychedelic riffs and vocals and songs about hope, strength, and the cosmos. It’s an uplifting record that preceded four years in which most people were trying to put each other down. It reminded us that we’re better than that, and always have the potential to move ourselves and others forward.

#8: Automatic – Signal (2020)

Good heavens, this is a stunning debut of post-punk and synthwave gems. Automatic threw down a gauntlet with this record after slapping all of us across the face with it – and looking fabulous while doing it. Signal arrives sounding like these three women have been making albums together for a decade and is perfect for dance floors, bedroom romps, and action scenes filmed in neon-lit nightclubs.

#7: A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service (2016)

The final album with A Tribe Called Quest made with founding member Phife Dawg before his death, We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service is a powerful record that reminded the world of many things: ATCQ still had the hip-hop chops that many still envied, Phife was an amazing MC, and that hip-hop (and music in general) can be a powerful tool of change and resistance.

#6: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity (2016)

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard could’ve appeared multiple times on my top 40 list due to their prolific output alone, but Nonagon Infinity was the surefire winner of everything they released in the last five years. The album is masterfully engineered as one long track that, when looped, plays infinitely without any noticeable bumps. This was the album that propelled them to massive popularity and is a wild ride from never-beginning start to never-ending finish.

What albums made the top five? Post-punk makes another appearance, as does more doom metal, powerful rock, electro, and an album by a legend.

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Top 40 albums of 2016 – 2020: #’s 15 – 11

We’re more than halfway through this list now, and we have a welcome comeback album, a live album, an improvised album, a double album, and an EP. What are they? Read on to find out.

#15: Yardsss – Cultus (2020)

You could almost call this an EP, since it’s only three tracks, but two of those tracks are each over twenty minutes long. Cultus is the improvised album I mentioned. It’s a stunning soundscape of shoegaze, psychedelia, synthwave, and jazz that the band created out of thin air with no plan at all. It’s a testament to their talent and an amazing listen.

#14: LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (2017)

Here we have the welcome comeback. LCD Soundsystem returned after a hiatus to bring all of us the dance punk we desperately needed as the country was beginning to tear at each other’s throats in fear and ignorance. Tracks like “Emotional Haircut” skewered hipsters and “Call the Police” addressed xenophobia – all the while making us dance.

#13: Windhand – Levitation Sessions (2020)

My wife and I watched a few live-streamed concerts in 2020, and all of them were good. This one, however, was the only one to give me chills. Windhand always brings power and spooky vibes to their brand of doom metal, and the Reverb Appreciation Society’s sound gurus did a great job of capturing Windhand’s wizardry in this live session. The hairs on my arm stood during “Forest Clouds.” I wanted to run through the streets yelling, “Wear a damn mask and wash your hands!” to everyone in sight to increase the likelihood we could all see Windhand live again soon.

#12: Thee Oh Sees – Facestabber (2019)

It was a bit difficult to choose which Oh Sees record to include in my top 40 list, because they put out a lot of material during the last five years – especially in 2020 when John Dwyer and his crew had nothing else to do but make more music and released multiple albums, EPs, and singles. The double-album of Face Stabber, however, was the album that I kept coming back to and giving to friends as a 2019 Christmas gift. It blends psychedelia with Zappa-like jazzy jams (with the stunning twenty-plus-minute “Henchlock” taking up one side of the double album) and took their music to a different level, which was pretty high already.

#11: WALL – (self-titled EP) (2016)

Holy cow. This post-punk EP from Brooklyn’s WALL burst onto the scene like Kool-Aid Man hitting a brick wall keeping him separated from kids dying of dehydration. “Cuban Cigars” was played all over England’s BBC 6 Music (where I first heard it) and they were the talk of SXSW and the east coast’s post-punk scene. They put together an untitled full album after this, but broke up before it was released. Fortunately, the lead singer and the guitarist went on to form Public Practice. This EP, however, relit my passion for post-punk into a three-alarm fire.

The top 10 begins tomorrow. It includes more post-punk, a rap album, Canadian psychedelia, and an Australian album that never ends.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 40 albums of 2016-2020: #’s 35 – 31

As always whenever one makes such a list, there are many albums you want to include but you have to draw the line somewhere. That line was drawn at 40 records, and we’re now at the top 35.

#35: Night Beats – Who Sold My Generation (2016)

No question mark. That’s one of the first things you notice when you look at the cover of Who Sold My Generation. It’s not a question. The album is a statement. It’s a rough, bluesy, psyched-out statement about how the Nights Beats‘ generation was sold out by one-percenters, trickle-down economics, and the tech industry.

#34: Partner – In Search of Lost Time (2017)

Hey, rock is supposed to be fun. Remember that? Well, Partner do. That’s pretty much their motto, and In Search of Lost Time reminds us that rock is often best served with massive riffs, shredding solos, lyrics everyone will remember and love (and sing at live gigs), and themes of sex, drugs, and, well…rock.

#33: Föllakzoid – I (2019)

There’s no way this album should’ve worked. The three members of Föllakzoid each recorded their own parts separately and then gave those parts to their engineer, who hadn’t heard any of them, and then more or less told him, “Make a record.” As my wife asked when I told her this story, “Then whose album is it?” The answer, according to Föllakzoid, is “Everyone’s.” It’s theirs because they made the parts, the engineer’s because he put them together into some kind of krautrock / Blade Runner sequel synthwave soundtrack, and the listener’s because he / she will interpret it however they want.

#32: The Beths – Future Me Hates Me (2018)

These pop-rockers from New Zealand weren’t on my radar until I stumbled across this record while working at WSND. I was floored by their great hooks, sharp lyrics, and the sense of fun that permeated the entire record. They blew up on radio across the globe with songs like the title track (about dreading a relationship as soon as it begins) and “Whatever” – an ode to slacker aesthetic.

#31: The KVB – …Of Desire (2016)

I don’t remember where I first heard …Of Desire, but it grabbed me and would not let go. This sexy shoegaze album never gets old and is suitable for everything from a synthwave / goth DJ set to waiting in your car for a train to pass to having sex to a quiet dinner at home. The duo use all their vintage analog gear to maximum effect, making you feel like you’re floating in some kind of electric warmth.

Come back soon as I crack open the top 30 albums of the last five years.

Keep your mind open.

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