Weirdo atmospheric pop master John Maus is following-up last year's most-excellent We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves with a rarities collection set for July 17 on Ribbon Music. The tracks span from 1999-2010, but they've all been remastered and remixed. Here's a little sample with "Mental Breakdown." The 2004 cut is rough and lo-fi but maintains the jarring vocals, bleeding synths and (most importantly) ear-warming melodic sense of his best work.
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Savannah, GA’s Cusses will self-release a new album this fall on HA! Records. While there is still a wait for the effort, which was recorded last year with producer Dan Hannon (Manchester Orchestra) in Asheville, NC, you can hear one of the group’s new singles now. “Worst Enemy" is a brash rock number, which is led by singer Angel Bond’s impassioned howl. This one is perfect for fans of The Distillers and Tsunami Bomb.
Philadelphia punk rock group Glocca Morra will offer up its new album on July 10 via Kind Of Like Records. “Ya'll Boots Hats (Die Angry)” is the first track to emerge from that effort, and it's a raucous, boozy number that should have your feet stomping and your head nodding. Or, to the extreme, it’ll send you looking for the nearest dive bar.
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T.I.'s latest single is exactly what you'd expect from The Kang. It's a cacophony of rolling rhythms layered below catchy bravado and signature "hey" chorus shouts. You don't have to wait til September when his new one, Trouble Man, comes out to roll down the windows on the whip and turn "Like That" up.
Stream: T.I. - Like That [Atlantic Records]
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Sometimes my dad will go on about how there aren’t real band names any more. I guess sometimes his wooden box of hippy-dippy beads (his words) speaks to him from the attic. Moby Grape, it says. Strawberry Alarm Clock, it persists. Crocodiles, I argue back. This good naming even extends to their tracks. “Endless Flowers” invokes the good of love-child days while sounding immensely 2012. A brash thumper with an escapist melody and the title track for their upcoming album of the same name. It’s out June 5 on Frenchkiss, Dad. Check it out.
Hell yeah, new New Zealand ‘90s-flecked shoegaze! Ladyhawke openers and peppermint indie rockers She’s So Rad have really won us over with “Confetti.” Remember that time when you went to a concert at some crappy stadium in, oh I dunno, Hartford, with a million kids packed into the car and you sat next to your ninth grade crush and your elbows touched the whole time, and then during the show you kept accidentally brushing each other too? And you spent the car ride home wondering if you’d kiss and your stomach was flipping and you wanted to throw up in euphoria? That’s what this song sounds like. The moment before you stepped out of that car, stalled in front of your house, waiting for that kiss.
Rap has a weird dichotomy going nowadays. Regional differences matter far less than in past decades, yet the sprawling nature of the Internet and DIY distribution has strengthened regional pride. A New York rapper might not sell a million now, but there are many engaging directly in the city's long lineage of hyperlyricism and hard boom-bap. Take Joey Bada$$ – a young Brooklyn rapper that pours lyrics over dusty funk beats that make me want to ride the N Train in 1993. While "Catharsis" is pure linguistic flexing, "Survival Tactics" (a collaboration with Capital STEEZ) shows his true potential.
(Photo: Tom Hines)
Desolate, foggy and filled with mystery, Family Band's "Night Song" conjures that anything-could-happen feeling that occurs when all the lights are out and you're still awake. There's an emotional directness from vocalist Kim Krans that mixes well with the menace produced by her husband (and bandmate) Jonny Ollsin. The band's second album, Grace & Lies, is out July 24 on No Quarter.
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