We're now a couple weeks removed from the grindcorepocalypse of my Spotify recommended tracks and I've since found myself discussing grindcore in completely unrelated situations with others numerous times in the ensuing weeks. It seems the machines may have been revealing what they listen to while cooking up how next to further irritate Elon Musk.
This week brought me the most diverse and interesting set of new music I've had in a couple months, perhaps with labels and artists finding the weeks around Memorial Day to be a good time to release new music (I have no memory of that being a seasonal trend in music in the past, but I also worked for a record label that had previously managed to drop their entire 2001 slate on 9/11, so it is possible I still have some things to learn on release dating).
In addition to the tracks below, we did also get new Yellowcard material this week. These guys are friends of mine going back a couple decades, and it brings me such joy just to know they've come back together as a band that the fact that they're even trying to put out new music feels like a bonus. I have wonderful memories of seeing them live in many cities and revisiting that with their next tour will be a thrill1. "Childhood Eyes" is nowhere near their best song and I'd defy anyone in the band or across their fanbase to claim it is. Regardless, I remain excited for the band's EP due out soon on Equal Vision Records, home at various points to Bane, Converge, 108 and American Nightmare. And now Yellowcard, I guess. What are record labels anymore?
Lektron - "She's a War"
It didn't take long for Matt Skiba to resurface after his strange stint in Blink 182. I wonder if people would remember the Matt, Mark and Travis show more positively had they simply gone by a different name the same way supergroups like Velvet Revolver and Audioslave have done in the past instead of shoehorning someone so widely known from another act into the Blink infrastructure. If Rush had one day decided to boot Geddy Lee and replace him with Sting, would they still have been Rush? Philosophers and Pitchfork writers will no doubt debate this for generations.
Anyway, "She's a War" is a throwback Skiba tune that could easily pass for Good Mourning-era Alkaline Trio. While he’s the only Trio member in Lektron (unless you count drummer Atom Willard's brief stint in between the Glenn Porter and Derek Grant eras), this is unquestionably his band and his sound. Sometimes it's better not to overcomplicate things.
Code Orange - "Grooming My Replacement"
Ever wondered what it sounds like when a band has some legitimate early-Eighteen Visions-like chops but can't help but try to sound like Korn about 30% of the time? I have not, but now I know. Code Orange have some crushers in their back catalog dating back to 2014 that remind me a lot of Chimaira (yet another band currently active on the anniversary tour circuit), but all of this group's post-pandemic material reeks of an identity stalemate between metalcore and a more Fear Factory-like industrial sound and the resulting concoction has an awkward nu-metal aftertaste that I'd rather just leave on the shelf.
The Dirty Nil - "Land of Clover"
Spotify unearths another band that's been around for a few years that I'm shocked I've never found before. The Dirty Nil are full of effortless rock bangers right in my wheelhouse. I can only assume the almighty Algorithm has an inherent vendetta against Canadians. "Land of Clover," from the band's brand-new LP Free Rein to Passions has an intro riff with curious resemblance to Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy" (not even a one-hit wonder, that band was a one-riff wonder2), but the similarities end there. The Dirty Nil whip up an interesting mix of emo, 90's post-grunge and power pop that makes me want to call this something like "blasty pop." As I explore this band's catalog I hear hits of everything from Failure to Weezer to The Stereo to Moneen - loud, distorted, mid-tempo rock with meaty hooks that don't sound cheap. This would fill every inch centimeter of an arena.
Absolute Losers - "By Fright"
Two Canadian bands in one week? Absolute Losers of Prince Edward Island boast a quick, cool and confident early-2000's indie sound a la Bloc Party or Modest Mouse that I'm perplexed has such low numbers across Spotify (~5k monthly listeners), Instagram (1200 followers) and probably other various digital channels but that's enough evidence for you. You couldn’t throw an iPod Nano without hitting someone in a band that sounded like this about 17 years ago, even in the maritime reaches of Prince Edward Island, but in 2023 this feels like a fresh revival take on clean and intricate guitar-driven indie-pop heavily drawing on influences from The Talking Heads to Joy Division to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I can't quite explain the band's miniscule digital numbers beyond assuming the band are lousy marketers or we're just at the cusp of this catching steam. I truly hope it's the latter as I dig this a lot.
Cobra Man - "Cadillac"
This Los Angeles 7-piece self-described as "power disco" (as apt a description as I could ever come up with on my own) for some reason comes up on YouTube as "French Indie." What even is that genre? Pink Martini3? Stereolab4? We can keep this quick - if you're into John Farnham, Stan Bush, Stacey Q or essentially anything that would feature in the soundtrack to a BMX or aerobics video between 1983 and 1987 or the 2007 film Hot Rod, you’ll enjoy this fun and harmless spin that will always have a time slot in a side tent at Coachella at 1:30pm on a Friday or at one of those scamtastic “influencer” parties. I'll forget all about this in about 2 days, but not before tossing it into my "pool party" playlist that I'm maintaining on the off chance that I one day own a pool.
Winona Fighter - "Hamms In A Glass"
Something feels odd about this group. I'm trying not to do intense deep-dives on every artist before I even listen to them, but Winona Fighter have a suspiciously small body of work for the profile of their representation. Now, good music doesn't require any specific sort of origin story and there are plenty of "find the talent and figure out the genre later" success stories like Paramore out there. But this reminds me more of "skip the line" acts of the past like LetterKills or TrustCompany - perfectly fine bands that had more street team members than fans (and I guess an aversion to the space bar). On the surface, you get nicely-produced and catchy skate punk that easily could pass for a Pennywise b-side with a focus-grouped chef's kiss of a band name. My guess is this full LP is perfectly palatable like a scoop of Kirkland ice cream, the band will find themselves with ample tour support and this could all easily find a big audience over time. It's just not really connecting for me. Also, I don't care for Pennywise and I prefer artisanal creameries.
Hot Water Music - "Drawn"
There was a time about 18 years ago when Hot Water Music really seemed like they might be over. The New What Next had recently come out with a bit of a whimper considering it was the follow-up to an incomparable classic in Caution5, half the band had strutted off to drop The Draft's outstanding debut and Chuck Ragan had gone the complete opposite direction launching a solo career with 2007's equally-excellent Los Feliz6. Today, that time now seems more like a brief blip at the halfway point of a band that has still fucking got it. "Drawn" rips with all the urgency of Hot Water Music of 20+ years ago, and even when new records of theirs have a handful of tracks that maybe lack some punch, you still know that if you saw them play the same material live you would immediately get it. Any time this band drops new music it feels as immediate and relevant as anything from this band's now nearly 30-year history. At this point it's hard to imagine them ever slowing down. I'm sure I've just jinxed it now though because, after all, this is all about me.
FEVER333 - "$wing"
Oh boy. If I still had my mid-20's car stereo with a trunk-sized subwoofer, I'd probably rock this turBROcharged nu-metal/hardcore hybrid pretty often just to justify the money I spent on that system at the time. If you ever wanted to know what Monster Energy Drink sounds like, here you go. FEVER333 is sort of a scene-adjacent band featuring ex-letlive. vocalist Jason Aalon Butler with an intensely political message following in the footsteps of Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine and with a logo paying homage to the Black Panther Party. That's all admirable, but I will admit that the song's chorus of "swing batter batter swing / sing motherfucker sing" doesn't necessarily scratch my activist itch in quite the same way as "Take The Power Back," but sometimes if something isn't catchy and memorable, it’s just a tree falling in a forest. This decidedly is both of those things, though I do worry that this feels a bit like a magnet for the exact opposite type of person that would be interested in this band's underlying lyrical motivation.
That'll be all for this week. I've started to receive some subscribers (hello and thank you!) without sharing this publication with a single soul as of this writing, so I guess I have Substack's well-meaning recommendations algorithm to thank for that because I have on good authority that Google's bots have yet to stop by. Seriously, how could there possibly be any downside to AI?
Assuming I actually leave the house this summer
If they even wrote that riff considering hitmaker Don Gilmore produced that album
Also not French
Also also not French
I blame the uncharacteristically bad cover artwork
Being in the audience for the recording of that record will likely remain a top-5 music memory for me for the rest of my days