Q's Compilations
Vol #132 – June to
July 2020
Well
it’s almost August, football came back and went, and my beloved Oxford United
managed to lose a playoff final, 2020 is the year that just keeps on giving. I
completed another orbit around the sun, despite most things still being bad it’s
incredibly depressing that the rest of the US didn’t seem to learn anything
from what we’ve gone through in New York, I’ve got a mix of almost entirely new
music. Hopefully you’ll find a smidge of joy from this.
01)
Bob Mould – American Crisis: Blue Hearts is the name of Bob Mould’s
latest studio album, out on Merge Records on the 25th of September,
this is the lead single and it’s pretty evident that he has a lot to be angry
about!
02)
The Beths – I’m Not Getting Excited: Future Me Hates Me was my favourite
album of 2018, I probably hadn’t played an album as much as that in years. Two
years on from that stunning debut, the New Zealanders have just released Jump
Rope Gazers which on first couple of plays has just as much charm and
melody as the debut.
03)
Silver Sun – Earth Girls are Easy: Brit power-pop act Silver Sun released two truly
excellent albums in 1997 (self-titled) and 1998 (Neo Wave), and have
since offered some sporadic output and are generally off the radar. I was
delighted to see that they’d released a new album this April (their first in
seven years) called Switzerland, and
04)
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Falling Thunder: This Aussie band released
their second album, Sideways to New Italy, in June, via Sub Pop, and
it’s another pleasant jangle-fest much like their debut.
05)
Gladie – Is That Why You’re Here: Remember concerts? The last one I went to was
on the 5th of March and happened to be Gladie, who had just released
their debut album, Safe Sins. Last month they released a three-song EP
called Orange Peels and this track is the opener.
06)
Shamir – On My Own: I bought Shamir’s entire discography on bandcamp during one
of their promotional Fridays, I’ve liked his music over the years without
dipping in too deeply and felt like I should rectify that, specifically so
after hearing this song that was released in the middle of June. I’ve still got
plenty to go back and hear!
07)
Bethany Thomas – I’m Not Sorry and I’m Not Scared: Chicago-based artist Bethany
Thomas is releasing her debut album BT/She/Her on the 28th
of August, this is the first single and I liked it enough to put on! She has a
great voice, though I could do without some of the extracurricular vocals as
they’re a little off-putting, but I’m looking forward to hearing what the rest
of the record has in store.
08)
Moor Jewelry – Look Alive: Moor Jewelry is a collaboration between Moor Mother
and Mental Jewelry and they just put out True Opera which you can get on
bandcamp (or on cassette, I guess that’s still a thing), it’s one of my
favourite records of the year and a little hard to pigeonhole but there’s
plenty of hardcore elements which are just great.
09)
Nnamdi – Rage: Another Chicago artist, I was tipped onto him by the Numero
Group and picked up his “Black Plight” EP that he put out in June, he also
plays everything to an impressive degree.
10)
Shrapknel – Gun Metal Paint: New York hip-hop duo Shrapknel put out an
excellent self-titled record on Backwoodz Studio in March, the lyrics here
don’t pull any punches.
11)
Bully – Where to Start: Grunge revivalists Bully are set to release a new
record called Sugaregg in August on Sub Pop and this is the lead single.
12)
Ultra Major – Picture Perfect: This track jumped out at me from a compilation I
bought on bandcamp, which happens to be about 7 hours long, which is far, far
too long to pay attention to and took me about a month to listen to everything
once. This New York band have a record from 2018 and a couple of singles.
13)
Still Form – Gums: I have been a fan of Portland band Marriage and Cancer for a
few years but I think they’ve broken up now (terrible-band name, admittedly),
members of that band plus a few other local acts have created Still Form, who
put out a 5-track EP in April this year. Stylistically it’s in the same arty
noise/punk form that Marriage and Cancer excelled at so I’ll be hoping there is
more material in the future.
14)
Look Sacre - Mal nécessaire pour un mal nécess: Four years ago I spent a long
weekend in Montreal and had a lovely time. As I always try to do, I looked over
concert listings and remembered that a friend recommended anyone should go to
the venue Casa Del Popolo, so without knowing who was playing we went along. I
remember liking Look Sacre and bookmarked their bandcamp page as soon as I got
home, but didn’t spent a huge amount of time thinking about them, I should dive
in a bit more after listening to this!
15)
Julius Wright – I Pray The Things Will Change: Another tune from that 7-hour
compilation I mentioned earlier, and given that all the tracks were not tagged
properly, I have very little information about this artist. I can only find
information about this song and another tune called Lonely Girl. Anyway,
great song, if you know anything about it then let me know!
16)
DEHD – Loner: Here’s another band from Chicago, the trio just released Flower
of Devotion in the middle of July on Fire Talk. It’s an instantly
accessible record filled with reverb-heavy pop hooks, very much a continuation
of what they were doing with previous record, Water (from 2019).
17)
Nada Surf – Sick Day: Fountains of Wayne were always one of those bands I
always knew I would like, if I ever got round to listening to them, unfortunately
Adam Schlesinger died due to Covid in April, so I’ve only gotten into his music
after this death, sadly. A tribute album called Saving for a Custom Van has
been raising money for MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund. There are some
excellent artists on the record so head over to bandcamp and buy it.
18)
Matt Berry – Something In My Eye: I’ve been watching What We Do in the
Shadows on Hulu and just finished season one, turns out Matt Berry (Laszlo
in the show) is also a pretty good musician and is about to release a new album
called Phantom Birds in September.
19)
King Tuff – I’m Free: This tune was originally written for and appeared on Ty
Segall’s Freedom Goblin album, in February King Tuff decided to release
his own version, and as you can imagine, it’s good!
20)
Fake Eyes – Demonstrations: This four-piece from Charlotte, NC, had put out a
couple of excellent demos in 2018 and 2019, and have just released their first
official EP called A Drip Is All We Know on New Morality Zine, it’s only
4 tracks but packs a punch and if you dig the new (or old…) Hum albums (more on
them imminently) or any heavy-shoegaze then you will love this.
21)
Hum – The Summoning: Speaking of Hum and heavy shoegaze, and another Chicago
band (what is it with this mix…), the band just released their first album in
22 years, though it was recorded over a period of 2017-2020. It barely gets out
of second gear over the course of an hour but it doesn’t need to, the
production is so great and really pulls you in.
Keep
being safe!
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
