EVERY WRITE-UP
~ DEC. 8, 2024: "One Eye Glitters" by Barreleye
Click image to listen!
"One Eye Glitters" is an incredible debut release sent to me from Urbana, Illinois, indie-experimental-kindajazzy-krautrockish trio Barreleye!!! Barreleye's music is very intelligent, every decision made for this record is perfect and makes for an amazing listening experience. Each song is unique and features something unexpected, yet the album is cohesive and highly sophisticated, mainly consisting of instrumental drum and key arrangements. The outros of songs "Washing Machine and Dryer" and "Cici Looks Back" are pleasantly strange with some weird reverse-sounding tape manipulation and a cacophonous music explosion, respectively. I particularly love this album's production choices; "Fingers Ivy" (the only non-instrumental song) has some distant, reverb-drenched vocals, "ESP" includes some pitch-shifting, echo-laden keys and mallets, the keys on "Call Me" are distorted and almost vocal-sounding, while "Dancer" features some flanged drums. The album ends with an amazing nearly 19-minute-long song titled "Swip". This track is beautiful and changes textures constantly, it could be an EP by itself. "One Eye Glitters" was recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely by Barreleye (which is the best way to do it) and it sounds great!! I love how prominent the drums are on this record, they're very jazzy but in a rock n roll way. Barreleye is definitely a band to keep an eye on, this is one of the best records of this year!!!! They also have a really cool website!!!!!!
BARRELEYE LINKS: instagram, bandcamp, spotify, website
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~ DEC. 8, 2024: BOYSLUT
BOYSLUT!
Boyslut is a harshnoise-digitalhardcore-avantgarde-dancepunk musician I associate heavily with some sort of modern day Fluxus movement. I've seen Boyslut live a few times at some strange DIY venues - which is where I think his music is most in element -, the music was extremely loud and I recall him getting tackled by an audience member - usually wielding an object to hit him with - at every performance. He didn't wear much clothes and always left injured. These danger music-esque performances reminded me a lot of Suicide. Boyslut's music is powerful and extreme, and you should definitely see him live at any chance you can!!
BOYSLUT LINKS: instagram, bandcamp, spotify
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~ DEC. 8, 2024: "Ballad of a Thin Poser Fuck" by Jackson Steffens
This is a pretty strange song sent to me from Chicago musician Jackson Steffens.. It features a Timothée Chalamet interview at the start and seems to be a possible disstrack on the actor and his role as Bob Dylan in whatever the upcoming movie is called - hence the title. Apart from the home-dubbed, low fidelity of this recording, it is actually a really good song!! It kinda has a slacker rock feel to it that reminds me of Built to Spill or Guided By Voices!!! Jackson Steffens is also a member of the newly formed Chicago band Receiver, which I am very excited to hear music from!!!!
JACKSON STEFFENS LINKS: instagram
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~ DEC. 8, 2024: DRIVE-THRU
Cick to listen to "The Planets"!!
Drive-Thru is a cool midwestemo-indie trio from Muncie, Indiana!!! Their music is very dynamic and textured, at times it can feature some complex guitar arrangements, but can also be quite warm and slow. I saw them play once at an indescribably strange venue, however, they still put on a great show and I remember their drummer telling jokes inbetween songs. Drive-Thru creates really well crafted songs, and I am definetly looking forward to what they release next!!!!
DRIVE-THRU LINKS: instagram, spotify
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~ DEC. 8, 2024: THE MANNEQUINS
THE MANNEQUINS!
The Mannequins are an alternative-indie-poppunk-emo trio currently based in West Michigan. Their music full of energy and passion, and combines alternative rock with catchy pop melodies!! I would throw on the Mannequins whenever you feel like dancing!!
THE MANNEQUINS LINKS: instagram, spotify
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~ DEC. 1, 2024: PARKiNG
PARKiNG!
PARKiNG is a really amazing noiserock-postpunk-lofi group from Louisville, Kentucky!! I first heard their music when they released Mike Johnson is a Mechanic this September and instantly became a fan, so I'm very thrilled to be writing about them!! I'm really excited to hear what's next from them and I've always wanted to know more about their music... and now I've finally gotten the chance to ask them everything, here's how it went:
Me: How did PARKiNG form?
Lizzie: Parking, For Me, Began with being handed a bass, which I had never played before and was asked to learn specifically for the band. Me and T had been close friends for a few months at that point and it seemed very natural to pick up a new instrument as I already played several from writing my solo music. We had a very small amount of songs, which led to our first set ever being 11 minutes long.
T: I started the project in early 2023, not releasing anything noteworthy until later that year, maybe sometime in August or so. There was no band, and the music being made was strictly a solo-project-coping-mechanism type of thing. I was severely ill and wanted nothing to do with the other unfulfilling musical endeavors I was enduring at the time. I wanted to drop everything ever and just become an absolute hermit, but instead I made a double-single in my parents basement on some barely functioning four track tape deck. Kind of hated it, but was proud of my efforts and put it out anyways. Eventually, I convinced Lizzie to learn the bass and kind of taught her how to do so. We just picked up our new guitarist Boss, who has been an absolute delight on the past weekend tour run.
Me: What are your main sources of inspiration?
Lizzie: For me personally, bands like Dry Cleaning, Tijuana Panthers, Omni, Wire, Tee Vee Repairman play a large role in how I create instrumentations but take heavy inspiration from Slower indie musician when writing lyrics, like Snail Mail, Mothers, Julia Jacklin, and Adrianne Lenker.
T: Listening to records and reading. Mostly reading, with this project. Lyricism is not my highest attribute so I have been trying my best to hone that in a little more. I love postmodernism and any weirdo brooding poetry I can get my hands on. Musically, I love the works of Ian Curtis & Joy Division, Animal Collective, and Guided By Voices. Those are probably my big three but there is plenty of others.
Me: What is your approach to writing?
Lizzie: I usually try to show up to practice with a few ideas of bass lines in my back pocket. Then me and T usually work shop them, some stick, others don't, but regardless we tend to bounce back and forth with ideas pretty well.
T: Historically I would just sit down with a bass and try to come up with anything noteworthy. Most of it was shit. Eventually I came upon the riffs for a few of our earlier tracks and recorded all the stuff myself. They sound fine. Nowadays I have Lizzie do more of the initial groundwork and I just kinda tweak anything I think needs tweaking, or writing additional sections and lyrics and whatnot.
Me: What's next for PARKiNG?
Lizzie: An Album. Fingers crossed. And hopefully going on tour. Would love to travel, play with great bands in great venues.
T: Actually sitting down to record. Maybe an LP but I'm always hesitant to record big things before big opportunities present themselves. I like to keep people on their toes. Makes it more fun.
PARKiNG LINKS: instagram, bandcamp, spotify
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~ Nov. 3, 2024: "1&2 (split single)" by canyon / my broken arm
Click image to listen!
This is a pretty sweet lofi-noiserock-drone-postpunk split single sent to me by its creators: canyon & my broken arm, both Chicago musicians. The single consists of two noisy guitar & drum instrumentals reminiscent of "Sister" era Sonic Youth & even some early work by the Gordons; these musicians are definitely to keep an eye on!! I got to ask canyon some some questions about this split, here's our chat:
Me: What inspired this release?
We wanted to make a split single between our two solo projects, but instead of just having one song from each of us, we decided to make 2 new tracks written together. We usually make songs that are more formulaic but for these songs we were inspired by drone, shoegaze/noise rock, and ambient genres as well.
Me: How did you write these songs?
We kinda just jammed it out to some different chord progressions and tunings and just made some noise that sounded pretty cool! We weren't really going for some concise pop music hits or anything, just have some sonic fun.
Me: What's next?
Well between our two solo projects, I've got a couple EPs planned out in the works and Jonah is going to be putting out a 15 song album, both independently. We're also both in the band Dust Bunnies and we've got big plans with that release wise!
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