7th Level Music

Angel Olsen to release box set of three albums and a 40-page book due out May 07th.

Today, Angel Olsen announces Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, a box set featuring All Mirrors and Whole New Mess, plus a bonus LP titled Far Memory, and a 40-page book collection, out May 7th on Jagjaguwar. In conjunction with the announcement, she presents “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess).” Originally conceived as a double album, All Mirrors and Whole New Mess were distinct parts of a larger whole, twin stars that each expressed something bigger and bolder than Angel Olsen had ever made. Now, with Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, these twin stars become a constellation with the full extent of the songs’ iterations: all the alternate takes, b-sides, remixes and reimaginings are here, together. Alongside, a 40-page book collection tells a similar story, not just through outtakes and unseen photos but through the smaller, evocative details: handwritten lyrics, a favorite necklace, a beaded chandelier. As if it could be more plainly stated (there’s nothing more), Angel adds one cover here: a loving, assertive rendition of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.”

“It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” was recorded during the All Mirrors session, and is an alternate version of “Whole New Mess.” It has an acoustic backbone, blooming with Olsen’s singular voice. As it continues, the song erupts with drums, electric bass, and Nate Walcott’s brass arrangement.

Watch/Listen to “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” Via the Visualizer

Released in 2019, All Mirrors is massive in scope and sound, tracing Olsen’s ascent into the unknown, to a place of true self-acceptance, no matter how dark, or difficult, or seemingly lonely. All Mirrors is colossal, moving, dramatic in an Old Hollywood manner. Recorded before All Mirrors but released after, Whole New Mess is the bones and beginnings of the songs that would rewrite Olsen’s story. This is Angel Olsen in her classic style: stark solo performances, echoes and open spaces, her voice both whispered and enormous. All Mirrors and Whole New Mess presented the two glorious extremes of an artist who, in these songs, became new by embracing herself entirely.

In first speaking about Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, Olsen said, “It feels like part of my writing has come back from the past, and another part of it was waiting to exist.” What better way to articulate timelessness. If Whole New Mess holds the truths of Olsen’s enduring self, and All Mirrors documents her ascent toward a new future, Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories exists out of time, capturing the whole artist beyond this one sound, or that one recording, or any one idea. It is a definitive collection, not just of these songs, but of their revelations and their writer, from their simplest origins to their mightiest realizations.

Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories is limited to 3,000 physical pieces. To celebrate the announcement, Olsen filmed an unboxing video to show the scope of the package.
Watch the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories Unboxing Video

Pre-order Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories

Far Memory Bonus LP Tracklist:
1. All Mirrors (Johnny Jewel Remix)
2. New Love Cassette (Mark Ronson Remix)
3. More Than This
4. Smaller
5. It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)
6. Alive and Dying (Waving, Smiling)

All Mirrors Tracklist:
1. Lark
2. All Mirrors
3. Too Easy
4. New Love Cassette
5. Spring
6. What It Is
7. Impasse
8. Tonight
9. Summer
10. Endgame
11. Chance

Whole New Mess Tracklist
1. Whole New Mess
2. Too Easy (Bigger Than Us)
3. (New Love) Cassette
4. (We Are All Mirrors)
5. (Summer Song)
6. Waving, Smiling
7. Tonight (Without You)
8. Lark Song
9. Impasse (Workin’ For The Name)
10. Chance (Forever Love)
11. What It Is (What It Is)

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Early Mornings embrace the ordinary on their new single – “Blank Sky.”

The Early Mornings are a 3-piece formed in Manchester in 2018, made up of Annie Leader – Guitar/Vocals, Danny Shannon – Bass, Rhys Davies – Drums. After recording a couple of home demos and gigging around the UK, they released their debut single ‘Artificial Flavour’ last year.

Today they share a gritty post-punk new track ‘Blank Sky’, that sits with the likes of Dry Cleaning, Mush, Cate Le Bon, and Porridge Radio, who have become inspiring names in the UK. It comes with a candidly shot video that shows the genuine streets and skies of Manchester, the perfect backdrop for the wiry guitars and deadpan vocals. They also announce their debut EP Unnecessary Creation which will be self released on Friday 18th June 2020.

Watch the self-directed video for ‘Blank Sky’ HERE

Within the band is a duality of love for both pop melodies and angular guitars. The lyrics begin as poetry which Annie then selects lines from, almost in the style of a Dadaist cut-up, to fit each song. What results is something entirely new, extricated from any previous context and devoid of preconception. If the listener wants meaning they will have to find it themselves amongst the fragmented observations, existing somewhere between nonsense and profundity, the personal is the political.

On the video, Annie said: “The colour palette, composition and lighting of the video all mix to create a dullness; a mundane reality which is interposed with artistic references, flashes of colour and surrealism. This is an idea which extends throughout our music as well.”

The Early Mornings’ debut EP Unnecessary Creation will be released 18th June 2021.

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Review: Black Light Smoke – The Early Years

At times chaotic, other times ambient, and other times danceable, Black Light Smoke‘s The Early Years is a collection of stuff electro-producer Jordan Lieb wrote back in the last decade. It covers a lot of cool ground.

Opening track “Up Up and Away” has nothing to do with a beautiful balloon (as far as I can tell), but has plenty to do with warped synths and beats that sound like they’re coming from a drum machine that’s been doused in bourbon. “Springtime for Rioters” could fit into another “Escape from…” John Carpenter film score with it’s bad-ass synth-bass, sampled screams, and industrial beats.

The driving beats of “123456789” are outstanding, and I love the way Lieb layers them with fuzzed-out guitars. “Black Light Smoke” is a weird, wonky tune that bumps and percolates while maintaining a sense of the bizarre. “Burn” has actual vocals as Lieb sings about having nothing to do on a Sunday since everything’s closed and his lover’s left him.

“North Korea” sounds like a forgotten Soft Moon track with its sinister synths and killer cyborg bass. Lieb sings / croons again on “The Figure” as his electro-groove simmer underneath him and simple, haunting piano chords keep time. The closing track, “Celeste,” showcases My Bloody Valentine‘s influence on Lieb with its soft vocals and “wall of fuzz” sound.

I’m glad Lieb decided to release this collection of early material. It will make you want to seek out more of his work, as any good collection should.

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[Thanks to Ryan at Clandestine Label Services.]

Zoee releases first single, “Microwave,” from debut album due June 25th.

London-based musician Harriet Zoe Pittard aka Zoee has previously released singles through Ryan Hemworth’s ‘Secret Songs’ imprint and Vegyn’s label Plz Make It Ruins, as well as guesting as a vocalist on tracks with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and with hyper-pop collective PC Music. Over the past two years Zoee has taken some time to nurture her voice and her sound. Her debut album ‘Flaw Flower’ is due on June 25th via Illegal Data.

The first single & video from the record “Microwave” is online now. Speaking about Microwave, Zoee said “it’s a many-sided song about familial dynamics, oppressive domestic settings and the joy found in self validation.”

Watch & listen to “Microwave” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7gZoDZ6lm8

Listen to “Microwave” via other streaming services here:https://smarturl.it/zoeemicrowave

‘Flaw Flower‘ is an honest and vulnerable glimpse into Zoee’s interior world, a world she creates through marrying her real-life phone notes with imagery taken from modern works of literature such as “The Flowering Corpse” by Djuna Barnes, Sylvia Plath’s “A Winter Ship” and Maggie Nelson’s “Bluets“. Through these 11 new songs, Zoee delves deep into her own emotional life, combining aspects of the everyday with the surreal in order to uncover the beauty found in being flawed.

The record nods to the avant pop of the 80s, an era that Zoee has always been drawn to thanks to the expressive and trailblazing music of women including Anne Clarke, Joan Armatrading, Cyndi Lauper, Rose McDowall and Anna Domino.

The album is characterised by a mix of hi-fi and lo-fi instrumentation. ‘The Loft’ features a free jazz solo from acclaimed experimental saxophonist Ben Vince alongside stock GarageBand synths. ‘Host’ combines home demo backing vocals with an elaborate baby grand piano solo. Zoee sources foley sounds from YouTube and pulls from her own domestic field recordings, such as a microwave buzzing in ‘Microwave’ and a shower running in ‘Evening Primrose’, often using these sounds as the starting point for the songs. Maintaining intimate bedroom elements whilst developing a more expansive band sound, felt integral to the project, since that’s where Zoee’s writing process often starts, sat on her bed with her laptop and midi keyboard.

Writing for the album began in October 2018 when Zoee started working closely again with friend and long-term musical collaborator Rowan Martin. As the material for the record began to take shape the writing and recording process also evolved with the addition of bassist Kyrone Oak and keys player Laura Norman, as well as contributions from Ben Vince and London pop artist Saint Torrente.

“I feel like the songs on this album took me deeper into myself, the sad song that I thought was about a boy is still about that but it’s also about loss, about self-determination, about not losing hope, about memory, about domesticity, about detachment, about my dad, about my mum, about change, about feeling incredibly alone, about growing up.”

‘Flaw Flower’ is set for release digitally and on cassette on June 25th via Illegal Data.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Madi Diaz gives us a lesson on presence with new single – “New Person, Old Place.”

Today, Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz releases her new single/video, “New Person, Old Place.” Madi recently marked a full restart of her career with the evocative “Man In Me,” a first offering showing how she’s capable of distilling profound feelings with ease. While “Man In Me” took Madi through her first steps of a really hard time, “New Person, Old Place” presents her further down the road, after processing the pain and loss of a breakup. She uses specific diction to describe feelings that are typically hard to verbalize: “I used to stay up on the off chance that you might call me back // I used to go shopping for pain go through pictures it’s all I had // I’d sift through our memories and live there even when I wasn’t sad // I used to, I used to, but now I don’t do that.”

Madi elaborates: “This was a moment I realized I wanted to start to learn how to do it not better, not worse, but just different… and then something shifted. Something in my heart finally knocked loose and I was breathing deeper. It’s hard as hell, breaking patterns and unlearning all the old shit, trying to shut all the doors that I used to open to let all the same hurt happen over and over. I’m at least learning to find new doors. ‘New Person, Old Place’ is a mantra. A line that I’m casting into the future so that I have something to guide me forward. It’s something of a reminder that if my heart is the house that I carry with me wherever I go, I can take it somewhere new, or I can do the same old thing I always do but backwards or with a cartwheel, and I can repaint and I can rearrange the furniture. I can clean the mirrors so I see myself true and clear.”

The “New Person, Old Place” video was directed by $ECK and shot in Madi’s pickup truck throughout Nashville. The video follows Madi on a journey to the salvage yard, driving different versions of herself to face her history.

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Throwing Snow releases mysterious new single – “Brujita.”

Throwing Snow, a.k.a. Ross Tones, will release his new album Dragons on June 25th via Houndstooth. Today he’s sharing the first single from the record, “Brujita“.
Speaking about the track, Throwing Snow said “‘Brujita’ is about the breaking of aural tradition and the suppression of cunning women and men. It’s a eulogy to lost folk wisdom.”

Listen to “Brujita” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg03mbuiZqI

Listen to “Brujita” via other streaming services here: https://hth.lnk.to/dragons

Throwing Snow’s fourth album is the audiovisually-augmented Dragons, a work that occupies the space between science and ancestral wisdom. It links music back to its prehistoric capacity for transmitting knowledge to new technology that can untangle the complexity of the contemporary world. Dragons’ ten tracks of heavy primal rhythmic productions incorporate the physicality of acoustic sources, from ancient ritual instruments to modern drum kit, and each track is accompanied by visuals generated by a neural network.

Throwing Snow, aka Ross Tones, developed Dragons’ neural network with artist, designer and technologist Matt Woodham. The structures and changes in Tones’ music trigger corresponding changes in accompanying moving images, which combine life in three scales, from microscopic views of rocks to large scale maps. “Everything that happens musically triggers the algorithm to do something,” Tones explains. “This isn’t controlled or predictable, and the music becomes an instruction for the algorithm to make its own decisions about datasets, images, speed, movement and other manipulations.”

The tracks on Dragons match Tones’s ambitions for the album in weight but not complexity. They are intentionally dazzlingly simple in their means, for maximum effect, with repeating motifs, locked basslines, cosmic patterns and full-frequency mids. Often built from four or fewer elements, Tones allows sound to accumulate into his unique take on ritual music for the 21st century. Throbbing ritual dances contain half-remembered earworms revealing glittering night skies of synthesizer patterns – ‘Halos’ stabs and stutters like a dance atop a longbarrow; ‘Purr’ reverberates in silky vibrational motifs; the heavyweight ‘Brujita’ is nu-metal for a past-future ceremony of uncertain purpose.

Tones says he often uses his music as allegory and container for the concepts and theories he’s immersed in – he studied astrophysics, and is fascinated by crafts, archeoacoutics, history, evolution and psychology. In Dragons, he wanted to explore the purpose of music from the beginning of human history. “We have Palaeolithic minds but find ourselves in an increasingly complex and interconnected world,” Tones explains. “Music and art have always been ritualised as a tool for memory, knowledge and emotion, and humans make sense of existence by using tools. Songs were tools of understanding, passed down from our ancestors. Now, things are complex and interrelated, so we can’t use that ancestral knowledge, and need to invent new tools – that’s where machine learning comes into it.”

As is typical for Tones’ Throwing Snow project, the album contains a bold and eclectic mix of instruments, from a bodhrán and daf to cello, with their uses rooted in their inherent acoustic properties. Tones also essentially built his own sample pack for the percussion patterns, working with drummer Jack Baker (Bonobo, Kelis, Alice Russell, Planet Battagon) on an intensive two-day session.

Tones is a Houndstooth stalwart, and Dragons is his fourth full-length album on the label, along with a string of 12”s and EPs. His first album was Mosaic in 2014, followed by Embers in 2017, and Loma in 2018. Originally from the North Of England, for the last few years he has worked from The Castle, his studio an hour outside Bristol/Bath, where he can both forage his own food and find the headspace to make music and experiment with modern technology. He is currently recording a new album with his trio Snow Ghosts, and a soundtrack for a Netflix documentary.

Dragons is a new form of inter-disciplinary album, which is neither wholly electronic nor acoustic, sonic or visual, and pulls from an equally diverse range of inspirations, from texts such as Steven Mithin’s The Singing Neanderthals and Margo Neale and Lynn Kell’s Songlines to the 1982 animated film Flight of Dragons. “I’m into putting music back into history,” Tones explains. “I want to make you think about what music is, what its purpose has been. I’m asking about the scientific aspect to folklore and ancient knowledge, and looking at why it’s still useful. This album is a doorway – if you choose to listen like that.”

Pre-order Dragons here: https://hth.lnk.to/dragons

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Squirrel Flower claims she wouldn’t “Hurt a Fly” on her new single.

Squirrel Flower, the moniker of Ella Williams, announces her new album, Planet (i), out June 25th on Polyvinyl, and today offers its lead single and video, “Hurt A Fly.” Planet (i) is the follow-up to 2020’s I Was Born Swimming, which boasted “peaceful, almost-ambient songs as well as heavy, hook-laden rockers” (Rolling Stone). Planet(i) is a world entirely of Williams’ making. The title came first to her as a joke: it’s her made-up name for the new planet people will inevitably settle and destroy after leaving Earth, as well as the universe imagined within her music. The record is a love letter to disaster in every form imaginable – these songs fully embrace a planet in ruin. Buoyed by her steadfast vision and propelled by her burning comet of a voice, Planet (i) is at once a refuge, an act of self-healing, and a musical reflection of Squirrel Flower’s inner and outer worlds.

Watch Squirrel Flower’s Video for “Hurt A Fly”

Williams wrote most of the songs on Planet (i) before the COVID-19 pandemic, but disaster looms large in its DNA. Susceptible to head injuries having played a lot of sports in her youth, Williams received three concussions from 2019-2020. Amidst the chaos of touring internationally during her own healing process, she began weaving threads between her physical and personal sense of ruin and her lifelong fear of the elements: of being swept up by storms, floods, and the deep ocean. “To overcome my fear of disasters,” Williams says, “I had to embody them, to stare them down.” This journey of decay and healing is the lifeblood of Planet (i).

Once quarantine set in, Williams began to produce demos in her room, amassing a collection of more than 30 recordings. Feeling a sense of artistic synchronicity over international phone calls with producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius), and with newfound covid antibodies, Williams flew to Bristol, UK in the fall of 2020 to record Planet (i) at Chant’s studio, The Playpen. “We had this shared creative language,” she recalls, “and the recording process was, like my demo process, very sculptural. Instead of recording live with a full band, we built this record layer by layer, experimenting, taking risks.” While Williams and Chant played most of the instruments on the record, Bristol drummer Matt Brown and Portishead’sAdrian Utley also joined their sessions. When Chant suggested the idea of backup vocals, Williams, whose voice had until now stood alone in her songs, enthusiastically enlisted friends and family to join her remotely with their voices and instruments; Tenci’s Jess Shoman, Tomberlin, Katy J. Pearson, Jemima Coulter, Brooke Bentham, and her brothers Nate and Jameson Williams, as well as her father Jesse.

The songs on Planet (i) are Squirrel Flower’s instruments for connection: with the people in her life, her collaborators, audiences, and ancestors; a lineage of artists whose spirits continue to inform her art. At the heart of this record is an insistence on connection and healing in the face of catastrophe. On the explosive lead single “Hurt A Fly,” Williams is a volatile, relentless presence. She takes the persona of a manipulative lover as she lurches from guilt to sorrow to renewed fury, backed by whirring, frenetic guitars. The accompanying video, directed by Ryan Schnackenberg, visualizes this energy, as Williams moves around inside a plastic bubble.

“‘Hurt A Fly’ is me embodying a persona of gaslighting, narcissistic soft-boy type shit,” says Williams. “The classic ‘sorry I acted violently, I’m not mad that you got upset at me, wanna hang out next week?’. I wanted to see what it was like to be a character trying to skirt around accountability. It’s an angry and unhinged song, and for the video I wanted to be inside a bubble writhing around and trying to get out. A stranger filmed me practicing choreography at a public park, submitted it to a meme page making fun of ‘influencers,’ and the video got 1,000,000 views, which in my mind is perfect thematically.”
On Planet (i), Squirrel Flower reveals a bright and uncompromising vision, confident in her powers of self-healing and growth. No matter what the disaster ahead of or within her looks like, and no matter how she shape-shifts to meet it, Squirrel Flower will always be a world of her own, a space-rock flying down the road in flames and flat tires.

Pre-order Planet (i)

Planet (i) Tracklist
1. I’ll Go Running
2. Hurt A Fly
3. Deluge In the South
4. Big Beast
5. Roadkill
6. Iowa 146
7. Pass
8. Flames and Flat Tires
9. To Be Forgotten
10. Desert Wildflowers
11. Night
12. Starshine

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

CHAI claims “Nobody Knows We Are Fun.” I don’t believe them.

Japanese quartet CHAI reveal a new single/video, “Nobody Knows We Are Fun,” from their forthcoming album, WINK, out May 21st on Sub Pop. It’s the third single off of the album released thus far, following “Maybe Chocolate Chips” (Feat. Ric Wilson) and “ACTION.” CHAI are known for their fun, vibrant music videos, and “Nobody Knows We Are Fun” is no exception.

Directed by Hideto Hotta, the video is cinematic and polished, showing the band adorned in colorful outfits and settings. The track was inspired by an at-home activity: YUUKI was watching 2019’s Booksmart when she had the idea for the song. (The movie’s whip smart protagonists decide to attend a party before high school graduation after realizing, “Nobody knows we’re fun!”) “I thought, ‘We, CHAI, can really relate to that scene,” YUUKI said of the song, which the band describe as “a mix of screaming our annoyances—why don’t you guys notice us!—while trying to be cute and sexy.”

Let’s check in with CHAI and see what they have to say about the song:

“It’s like ‘Nobody Knows We Are Fun,’ right?!”
“Seriously! Not cool!”
“Perhaps they underestimate us? ♡”
“Or maybe they are like ‘don’t be a show off!’”
“Say what you want! What matters is that despite always being ourselves and never changing, we are still the most FUN!”
“Totally!! ♡♡”
“It’s that type of song! Take a listen and loosen up♡”

WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “NOBODY KNOWS WE’RE FUN”

CHAI is 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. Like all musicians, CHAI spent 2020 forced to rethink the fabric of their work and lives. They took this as an opportunity to shake up their process and bring their music somewhere thrillingly new. Rather than having maximalist recordings like in the past, 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. They 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.

WINK is also the first CHAI album to feature contributions from outside producers (Mndsgn, YMCK) as well as Ric Wilson. This impulse towards connection with others 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. In that act of opening themselves up, CHAI grew into their best work: “This album showed us, we’re ready to do more.”
WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “MAYBE CHOCOLATE CHIPS” (FEAT. RIC WILSON)

WATCH THE “ACTION” VIDEO

WATCH THE “DONUTS MIND IF I DO” VIDEO

WATCH THE “PLASTIC LOVE” VIDEO

PRE-ORDER WINK

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[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Clutch to release collector’s edition of “Blast Tyrant.”

CLUTCH announces the Clutch Collector’s Series, limited-edition vinyl reissues of initially four catalog albums on their own label Weathermaker Music.

Blast Tyrant is the first release in the series and is curated by drummer Jean-Paul Gaster. “I worked with the album’s original artist Chon Hernandez to create a new look and feel for the Clutch Collector’s Series release of Blast Tyrant. Chon did an amazing job drawing the Blast Tyrant to look 20 years older and wiser. We selected new colors for the jacket, sleeves, and vinyl to make a completely new package.

“The album has been remastered and is manufactured on 180-gram colored vinyl. The gatefold jacket is printed on metalized polyester paper and embossed with the official Clutch Collector’s Series seal. The double-disc set is sleeved in extra heavy stock paper and includes a numbered insert autographed by the band. The Clutch Collector’s Series release of Blast Tyrant is limited to 5,000 units worldwide.”

Blast Tyrant is scheduled to be released in June. The initial presale on clutchmerch.com took place on March 23rd and sold out within 3 hours.

The limited-edition can be ordered through Indie retailers. Use this search engine to find a store near you: https://bit.ly/2O4FH7C

The album is also available for pre-order on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dn7Uiu

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[Thanks to Doug at New Ocean Media.]

Warish release wild new single from upcoming album.

Southern California trio Warish share a new video & single from their anticipated sophomore full length, Next To Pay (RidingEasy Records) today via Kerrang! Watch and share “Second Hand Misery” HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)
Consequence of Sound recently shared the single “Seeing Red” HERE. Revolver Magazine premiered the video for “Say To Please” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

About the video, Riley says:“This video came to mind when I heard the ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ song by Barney playing somewhere while I was in a bad mood and was thinking, this song is kinda evil sounding. Then I went home and instantly started editing the video to the track S.H.M. Because it’s the polar opposite of If You Are Happy And You Know it. It fit nicely I thought, hah.”

With a name like Warish, the San Diego noisy punk-metal trio assured listeners they were in for a maniacal bludgeoning from the get-go. But the band has never been as dark and bitingly vicious as the wholly ominous Next To Pay. The band’s mix of early AmRep skronk, dark horror rock and budget doom antipathy is taken to a whole new level on this 13-song invective.

“‘Next To Pay’ is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die,” vocalist/guitarist Riley Hawk says. “It’s not the happiest record, I guess.” To say the least. On the title track opener, Hawk screams through shredded vocal chords with the tuneful rage of Kill ‘Em All era James Hetfield and the seething desperation of Kurt Cobain.

“This album is more of an evolution, it’s a little more punk-heavy,” Hawk says of the group quickly founded in 2018. “We figured out what our sound was.” And with that evolution comes a change in the lineup. Original drummer Nick (Broose) McDonnell plays on about half of the songs, while new drummer Justin de la Vega brings an even tighter urgency to the remaining, more recent tracks. Bassist Alex Bassaj joined after the debut album was recorded and here showcases muscular and melodic low end previously missing. Riley Hawk is also the pro-skater son of Tony Hawk.

Inspired by early-Nirvana, The Misfits, The Spits and Master of Reality-era Black Sabbath, Next To Pay keeps things heavy and pummeling at all times. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk; more like Greg Ginn’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions, and occasionally drenched in chorus effects. The rhythms bash right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated. Warish’s cover of 80s DischordRecords punks Gray Matter turns the emotive flail of “Burn No Bridges” into a Motorhead style basher.

Next To Pay will be available on LP, CD and download on April 30th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.

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