This week has been a little slow in terms of stellar musical releases but we still managed to fix a few gems and one meh track. These are our picks for the week. Let us know if we’ve missed something.
Roya have been one of the best and most omnipresent local bands for a couple of years. While their music has been confined to the live arena with very little studio recorded tracks to speak of (with the exception of “End Times”), Roya has finally released a track from their forthcoming debut album. If you’ve seen them a million times like we have you’ll recognize “A Sickness” from the cooing “whoo whoo” littered throughout the track. Listen to it here.
“Misogyny Stone” from the forthcoming Horoscope LP goes throughs a full minute of screeching and pulsating white noise before the vocals peek in from the abyss. It’s violent and harsh but we assume that’s the point. As the vocals struggle to make their echoes heard through a layer of drone noise, a peaceful numbness takes hold as repetition becomes meditation.
“No One Likes You” comes as the first release from Smidley, the solo project of Foxing frontman Conor Murphy. Smidley juxtaposes the faux romance that is second nature to a high falsetto, through going to almost screeching lengths and further contrasted by the lyrics which, are biting and comical “The crowds do not applaud / ’cause no one likes you or the band you’re in at all.”
Soccer Mommy is a painfully relatable band. On the BandCamp page there’s a quick description of “be seeing you” simply stating “this is a song about someone i thought i might never see again lol” which is exactly the way we approach and process all real and difficult emotions. Aside from being relatable, “be seeing you” is beautiful and smooth, sonically concealing it’s sadness and apprehension until more than halfway through the track.
“Scrambled Egg” starts out spaced out and slow before collapsing in on itself revealing it’s chaotic underpinnings. Crackling, loud and unrelenting it’s the type of noise you turn up in the hopes of rewiring your insides. The song is the first track off of the British band’s upcoming EP, Immortal Combat and is at the least, a refreshing take on the ever-growing presence of scuzz rock.
Father John Misty is about to release a new album which you definitely know because there’s been a non stop press hurricane surrounding his latest releases, we’re not really sure why but as far as pop culture figures go at least he’s amusing (posting “WHY GOD WHY” after having one of his tracks covered on the Voice is a top 10 pop culture moment). Are any of his recently released and aptly titled “Generic Pop Songs” actually good? The answer is probably no but the jury is still out so give it a listen.
