Cuffed Up Asymmetry – 7th Level Music

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 30 – 26

As always, I actually wait until the previous year has ended to put out my list of my top albums (and live performances, which will be listed in other posts), because albums are released all the time. Many excellent albums have been released in many Decembers and gone forgotten or ignored by music critics and bloggers.

So, without further ado, let’s get started. I reviewed sixty-five albums last year, so I cut the list in half to cover the top of the bunch.

#30: Shred Flintstone – Unlimited Power

This is a wild punk rock record from a band with a goofy name and serious chops. I mean, you have to be good with a name like “Shred Flintstone.” Unlimited Power is appropriately titled, because the whole thing is bursting with energy.

#29 Open Hand – Weirdo

This is a fun dance-rock record that was several years in the making. It’s like a combination of LCD Soundsystem and !!!.

#28: Jealous – Lover / What’s Your Damage?

This is a wild double EP of post-punk and krautrock from Berlin. It ranges from dance beats to rock riffs and was one of the best releases fro Dedstrange all year.

#27: Cuffed Up – Asymmetry

This four-song EP is solid alternative rock with catchy hooks, great double vocals, and heavy riffs that bode well for a full-length album in the future.

#26: The Black Angels – Live at Levitation

The Reverb Appreciation Society has been issuing “Live at Levitation” albums for a little while now, so it was no surprise that The Black Angels, who started the RAS and also started and still help curate the annual Levitation Music Festivals in Austin, Texas and Angers, France, should get their own release in the series. It covers some of the bands’ earliest performances at the festival and is a treat for fans of the band, the festival, and psychedelic rock.

Who cracked the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Cuffed Up – Asymmetry

Cuffed Up‘s new EP, Asymmetry, is a powerhouse packed into just four songs about shame, regrets, bad health, rough relationships, and, yes, even a bit of hope and forward progress.

Opening track “Bonnie” puts a modern spin on the tale of infamous gangsters Bonnie and Clyde, framing it in the idea that Bonnie gets tired of Clyde’s crap and decides to stand up for herself. The back and forth vocals from guitarists / vocalists Sapphire Jewell and Ralph Torrefranca are almost as fiery as their guitar work. Meanwhile, drummer Joe Liptock instantly throws down the gauntlet for his bandmates (and himself for the rest of the record) with his powerful beats.

“Terminal,” a song about Torrefranca facing his own mortality, (“Every moment’s my last. The future’s got a plan for me.”) has a cool, hard swing to it. The guitars on “Canaries,” as well as Vic Ordonez‘s bass, sound like a wild, angry brawler who only pauses to wipe blood from his or her mouth and take another swig of beer before approaching the next foe. Closing track “One By One” has wild rhythms from Ordonez and Liptock and seems destined to fill a stadium one day.

Asymmetry is solid, and it definitely makes you wonder how much power Cuffed Up will put into a full album if they already jam this much into an EP.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Conor at Hive Mind PR.]

Cuffed Up share “Bonnie” ahead of their “Asymmetry” EP due October 22nd.

Today, LA-based post-punk quartet Cuffed Up are sharing their driving and propulsive new single “Bonnie,” as well as well as announcing their new EP Asymmetry, out on October 22nd via Royal Mountain Records (Alvvays, Wild Pink, METZ). “Bonnie” sees vocalists & guitarists Ralph Torrefranca and Sapphire Jewell trading vocals amidst a relentless onslaught of soaring guitars and crashing drums and bass via Joe Liptock and Victor Ordonez.

WATCH: Cuffed Up’s “Bonnie” on YouTube

The band explains that ““Bonnie” is an anti-love anthem about the grief and pitfalls of a serious relationship crumbling due to lies and deceit. This is explored through the eyes of Bonnie (of Bonnie & Clyde fame), in an alternative universe where Clyde selfishly leaves Bonnie for dead. Bonnie is arrested and she decides to give Clyde up to the cops out of pure spite. Not because he left her in a dangerous situation — purely because of the end of their romantic, albeit toxic relationship.” With a video directed by Torrefranca (an award-winning filmmaker outside of Cuffed Up), it stars himself and Jewell in a role-reversal swapping Bonnie and Clyde.

Already seeing support for the EP from outlets like SPIN, Beats Per Minute, Buzz Bands LA, KEXP, KCRW in Los Angeles and Double J in Australia, Cuffed Up are heading out on a full US tour as main support for The Joy Formidable. Beginning in Seattle on 11/26, it will make stops in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia along the way, ending in Burlington on 12/18. Full routing below.
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For Asymmetry, Cuffed Up paired up with producer Brad Wood (Touché Amoré, Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair) spending a week honing the songs through experimentation with sounds and ideas and the result is a collaborative effort that tackles one’s own mortality, abandonment in relationships and reckoning with shame. It expands on their refreshing self-titled debut that saw love from the likes of KEXP, NME, DIY, Bandcamp, and The Line Of Best Fit, as well as Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), Daniel P Carter (BBC Radio 1) and John Kennedy (Radio X) and a supporting run with Silversun Pickups.

Cohesive yet expansive, soaring yet direct, Asymmetry draws lines across the globe to the burgeoning post-punk scene in the UK, while also leaning into ‘90s indie rock and grunge, a loud and rhythmic rainbow of post-punk that is fluid and versatile. Whether it’s the aforementioned “Bonnie”, Torrefranca’s brutal reckoning with his own health struggles on “Terminal”, the inventive freeform of Jewell’s guitars in “Canaries” or Ordonez and Liptock’s fidgeting and dexterous rhythms in “One By One”, Asymmetry is a line in the sand for Cuffed Up, a declaration of intent from the young band who are poised to breakout from their West Coast home.

“Bonnie” is out now on Royal Mountain Records. It is available here. Asymmetry is out on October 22nd through Royal Mountain Records. You can pre-order it here.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Conor at Hive Mind PR.]