British musician and visual artist, Vivienne Cure, releases new single and video, Fire Flies, a dark, brooding and quite memorable cut off her forthcoming EP, Violet Ashes.
Vivienne Cure has cannily implemented properties from heavy and underground styles like gothic rock and doom metal together with more experimental ways, and her new offering is not an exception to that acute merger, still, the outcome feels positively approachable and coherent.
Thematically, the artist draws influence from the darker aspects of life alongside personal memories, making her works profoundly esoteric endeavors.
Directed by Ben Coiacetto, the video for the new single, Fire Flies, delineates Cure's love for noir horror aesthetics which mingle seamlessly with her musical style. Driven by evocative vocals and plenty of emotionalism, Fire Flies tackles "issues of abandonment trauma and self loathing."
00_ (reads as 'double oh nothing') is an Australian band which brings forward a tough to define sound based on primal post punk and noise rock, and an experimental mindset which results to a lot of unconventionality and offbeat artistry.
The band's new EP, Ca\yptra, has recently been out through Off White House Records. In less than six minutes, lead track, claUdia, finds the band moving through passages of experimental art rock, post punk, garage rock, slowcore and math rock, a union which can only compare to the No Wave movement, although its parallels to a wealth of avant-garde and underground sounds can be fairly transparent.
claUdia is paired to a music video of similar eccentricity, directed by Myles Carew.
London-based act, Struggles With Syntax, describe themselves with the sort of unclear term "regret rock," yet, their sound can be quite perceptibly placed next to the popularized 2000s post hardcore scene (At The Drive-In, Million Dead, Future of the Left). With irony being a prime component in the band's lyrical direction, Struggles With Syntax have just released their new album, Petrichor through Muzai Records.
Apprehensive and very much tense, album highlight Ticky represents the edginess in the quartet's sound, making perfect sense of the controlled chaos which they deftly produce through their slick merger of agitated vocals and intricate instrumentals.
Ticky comes accompanied by the most oddball workout video ever, conceived by the band and edited by Rory O'Connor.
Rising Brighton, UK post hardcore band, Chalk Hands, return with Fail, Grasp, Restore, the first single off their debut album, Don't Think About Death, recorded by Lewis Johns at the Ranch Production House (Rolo Tomassi, Employed To Serve, Cassus), and coming out on March 18th, 2022 through Dog Knights Productions.
Once again, the band's sound maintains a deft and exciting balance between post rock, hardcore and emo elements by way of gripping compositional structure, and immense sentimentality. Comparisons to genre spearheads such as Touché Amoré are fair, but do not define Chalk Hands' artistry in absolute terms.
The band describe: "Fail, Grasp, Restore is a song about forever questioning yourself, assessing where you're at, and imagining how your current actions could paint your future.
"It's hard to have pure confidence in the choices you make. There may be days in which you feel sure of yourself, but then there are always going to be days where you can't help but battle with doubt. The song, in short, asks if you feel you have made the most out of your time, with the one body you are given. You learn to live with the scars made from bad choices and you carry your achievements everywhere you go. You take all of this forward and it will inevitably take part in who you will become, so who will you become?
"Ultimately Fail, Grasp, Restore is a song about acceptance, the desire to be at peace with who you are and about learning to deal with your past in the healthiest way you can, allowing it to improve your future."
Fail, Grasp, Restore comes with a good looking video created by Doug Elliott.
The massively influential Failure are alive and in great form, as proven by the first offerings off their upcoming new album, Wild Type Droid, releasing on December 3rd, 2021 through Failure Records.
Second single, Submarines, is a heavy grunge rocker which keeps the mid to late nineties alternative rock spirit alive, and bears a fantastic production. Built on a striking riff and contemplative lyrics which are inspired by the post-Covid world, the new song finds the band sounding confident and imposing, proceeding towards their most substantial release since their 2013 reunion.
Harp On is the second single from Downbeats, the upcoming album by the Brisbane-based shoegaze group, Terra Pines. The new track follows a more direct songwriting approach and has a bit of cleaner sound compared to the record's previously unveiled title track.
Harp On brandishes Terra Pines' dreampop side, in a very gentle and harmonious manner, as the trio once more draws attention to their genre fusing slyness.
Terra Pines are Kelly Hanlon (guitar, vocals), Owen Dengate (guitar, vocals) and Cameron Smith (drums, vocals).
Downbeats is coming out early 2022 through False Peak Records.
Nashville indie rockers, Geez Louise, release their new single, Out, Out!, an energetic garage rock track which verifies the band's drawing power through its vitality.
The band comment on the new song's aim: "Beneath the angsty tone of the track lies the true romantic admiration for beautiful writers that have influenced literary culture, fetishizing thought provoking characters over dude bros."
Formed by frontwoman Sierra Torres and lead guitarist Nick Jude in 2019, Geez Louise released their first single, Solipsism, earlier in 2021, which was more dreampop-based. The band move on by fleshing out their traditional indie garage rock approach, wielding elements from rock 'n' roll and psychedelia, and making their adaptability clear, as they're still seem to be establishing the determinants of their sound.
Frankie Rose (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls) and Matthew Hord (Running, Pop. 1280, Brandy) have just released their superb first album as Fine Place. This New Heaven evidences the band's tendency for minimalist song structures, and their outstanding merging of industrial, synthpop and post punk sounds, with gothic nuances always perceptible.
New single and highlight track, Tending To Twenty, is paired to a freshly unveiled, beautiful music video of stylized black and white visuals, directed by Frankie Rose. The most inspired and originative modern implementation of Cocteau Twins' influence in today's underground scene, Fine Place already have the air of something eminent burgeoning.
This New Heaven is out now through Night School Records.
Working as an expansion of the exquisite full length, Euphoric Recall which came out earlier in 2021, standalone single, Jaw, presents an even darker and more brooding aspect of MØAA, the creative vehicle of Seattle born, Venice based artist Jancy Rae.
With a more tense post punk direction, the new track bases its concept on the polarity which comes with corruption, and the deeper reasons behind it. It comes with a fantastic, shadowy video directed and edited by Alice Lorenzon.
Jancy Rae comments: "Jaw is about being the black sheep, or the bad seed in a group of friends. Usually those who are living a sketchy life aren’t easily able to escape it and instead suck others into their tornado and corrupt the people around them. From the outside, people wonder why the reckless and troubled behave this way but rarely do they actually want to know where they are coming from or what their story really is."
Recorded between November 2020 and May 2021, during a period when Did You Die's Richie Felix Alexander and Madison Penland went homeless for a month during the pandemic, Thirteen Moons is the anticipated upcoming album by the Vancouver shoegazers, the follow up to 2018's Royal Unicorn. The two bandmates eventually became roommates as well, and finished the album. The rest of Did You Die's lineup is rounded out by bassist and vocalist Jula Lafit, and drummer Tom Rapanakis.
Weightless is the lead single off the impending album, a fine combination of grunge and dreampop sounds and aesthetics. The song is fully reminiscent of nineties' alternative rock in the best possible way, with sharp guitars at the front, intermingling with the soft and composed vocals.
Weightless comes with a fetching DIY video shot and edited by Alexander in Vancouver, BC, featuring Becca Buick.
For the new album Alexander decided to not work with external producers or engineers, so he would not have to compromise on album's sound and mood.
Thirteen Moons comes out January 1st, 2022 through Blew//Rose.
