Now in their 30th year, the Faint is an anomalous Saddle Creek band that never broke up. The gang is now finally putting its two best albums on wax for the first time ever. Read my review of the Blank Wave Arcade/Wet From Birth (Deluxe Editions) for Treble.
From start to finish, Wet Leg’s Moisturizer hits all the right notes, creating the classic conundrum of whether to fade out a song or turn off the music altogether if you’ve got somewhere to be. Read my Music Connection review.
Fun fact: With 27 LPs and three EPs under their belt, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are close to matching the number of felony convictions on Trump’s “record”—pun very much intended. Read my Treble review of their latest album, Phantom Island.
Celebrate July 4 by listening to a new song by The Armed that reminds us America is a country with No Kings. And go to Treble to read more of my commentary on the scorching song.
Peter Gill’s lovely debut record, which he’s issuing under the nom de plume WPTR, contains 18 short musical vignettes documenting his observations of nature, animals and human behavior. Read more of my take on the song courtesy of Treble.
The third LP from the pigeonhole-proof Brooklyn collective Activity proves just how far they can stretch the boundaries of indie rock with this radically diverse set of songs. Read my review of A Thousand Years in Another Way courtesy of FLOOD.
On their latest album, Burn Cruise (Max Trax), Leafblower delivers its riffs with frequency and ferocity. But this time around, they have an objective in mind: to ensure that each song Leafblower presents (excluding the brief banjo outro reminiscent of Panopticon) rocks hard. Read my Music Connection review of Burn Cruise.
Gruesome’s new rip-roaring record, Silent Echoes, so thoroughly beats the listener into submission that Merriam-Webster might have to devise a term far more potent than “bludgeoning,” “battering” or “abusively punishing.” Read my review of the record courtesy of Post-Trash.
Read my review of Laura Jane Grace & In the Trauma Tropes’ new record, Adventure Club, in the July issue of Music Connection or on its website.
Rather than replicate the early sound of their ’90s-era triumph, Fixation on a Co-Worker, Deadguy opts for hooks, guitar texture and a throwback production sound that digs deep on their first studio record in three decades. Read my Treble review.
The Bad Penny (beta) 