DOWNLOAD: Cursive - The Sun and Moon
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Omaha rockers Cursive will release their seventh album next month via Saddle Creek. Entitled I Am Gemini, the album is a complex, narrative-based work that tells the tale of twin brothers. “The Sun And Moon," the first single, surges with rock that pairs Cursive’s punk roots with more recent indie rock tendencies. It offers a taste of the evolutionary leap the band takes on the new record – a different, but no less beautifully cacophonous collection of tracks.
DOWNLOAD: Digital Leather - Young Doctors In Love
Digital Leather, the synth punk project of musician Shawn Foree, released its last effort, Warm Brother, in 2009. Now, Foree’s project will offer a new collection of songs entitled Modern Problems on February 14. “Young Doctors In Love” comes from that new one, which was recorded entirely on tape – meaning there is a warm, organic feeling on the track that shows through the fuzz and static. It certainly leaves me wanting more of the album.
DOWNLOAD: The Energy - I Can’t Stand Up
What would Black Flag sound like recording a garage rock album? The Energy, a punk rock band from Houston, answers this question on "I Can't Stand Up." The group released its debut, Get Split, via Team Science Records a few months back, and this one is a great sample – a grungy punk track featuring a loose, impassioned performance and wide-eyed yelping vocals that balance between angry aggression and thoughtful intelligence. You know that's hard to do.
DOWNLOAD: Anti-Flag – Turncoat + Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash Cover)
(Photo: David Cooper)
Pittsburgh band Anti-Flag has developed its outspoken political punk over the course of eight records since 1996. Now the band has re-imagined several of their impassioned numbers on Complete Control Sessions, an EP of four originals and three covers of The Clash. The disc came out last week via SideOneDummy and now you can check out “Turncoat,” initially from 2003’s The Terror State, and a rollicking rendition of “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
DOWNLOAD: Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes
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(Photo: Lauren Dukoff)
While some of us find the stare of "bedroom eyes" kind of embarrassing (why so serious!), Dum Dum Girls takes a more sophisticated look at things. Only In Dreams is the band's new album and standout track "Bedroom Eyes" is about longing and distance -- a significant theme throughout the record as leader Dee Dee deals with topics like separation from a lover and her mother's death. There's a slippery, timeless quality to the songwriting here which would work well at a '50s dance, '80s punk show or in a contemporary bedroom dreaming of the future. It's out now on Sub Pop.
DOWNLOAD: Male Bonding - Pumpkin
If you want to get things done today and you haven't listened to any music yet, let this track from London's Male Bonding blow the crust from your eyes. Kicking with delirious pop-punk glee, "Pumpkin" is a rush: American Hallowe'en as seen through the eyes of film-watching English suburbanites. Lo-fi bands in checked shirts are springing up like happy weeds all across London and its dowdy edges at the moment, as love for LA Smell acts like No Age, Mika Miko and Abe Vigoda ripples out into the provinces, but Male Bonding were doing what they do way earlier than most and it shows, no lazy appropriation of noise to mask sloppy pop or affected mid-Atlantic phoney-vox. Instead, "Pumpkin"'s full of tight-knit joy blasts and intricate, cowbell-laden breakdowns: out along with tracks by Old Blood, Graffiti Island and Rapid Youth on MB's own Paradise Vendors Inc label this week. Do yourself a favour...
Sounds Like: Descendents, Parts & Labor, Talbot Tagora
