Last we touched base with Russian Baths, they were releasing “What’s Your Basement”; now, they are gearing up to drop their debut EP, Penance, on February 23rd. The four track record features “Slenderman”, “What’s Your Basement”, “Poolhouse” and “Black Cross” and is released via Good Eye Records. The Brooklyn-based noise rock band is made up of Luke Koz (guitar, vox) and Jess Rees (guitar, keys, vox) along with Evan Gill Smith (bass) and Jeff Widner (drums). Previous to the release of their upcoming EP, Russian Baths dropped a split single, “Ambulance/Ghost”.
“Slenderman” opens the EP and sets the tone immediately. Filled with intense percussion alongside floating vocals, the track sets the stage for the next song splendidly. “What’s Your Basement” follows “Slenderman”, and is the most noise-rock of the four tracks. With some killer guitar and drums, “What’s Your Basement” takes its place as a solid punk/noise rock track. Check out more about the track here.
“Poolhouse” is next up on the EP, and is closer to the the sound of “Slenderman” rather than “What’s Your Basement”, but still stands alone. Opened with a marvelous minute-and-a-half instrumental interlude, the track provides for a musical tour of an emotional ground zero.Guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Jess Rees says of “Poolhouse”: “This song was inspired by a friend’s tumultuous breakup. The idea can apply to any situation where you wake up and say ‘how the f*** did I get here, I don’t want to be here and I don’t even know who I am’. It’s about an existential crisis.” “Black Cross” closes out the album with some well crafted bass and guitar. The last track finishes strong, leaves you with solid understanding of Russian Baths’ musical style after this tour of their soundscape. Penance is a record that will shake off that dreary winter feeling, and get you motivated to do great things.
Check out Penance by Russian Baths on February 23. Follow Russian Baths: Facebook //Instagram
Milwaukee-based No No Yeah Okay, an electronic/pop/hip-hop/punk band is dropping their sophomore EP, Cabal, on February 9. Comprised of Mark Gage (producer), Christopher Quasius (guitar), Colin Plant (vocals) and Joshua Paynter (bass), the group, founded in 2014, signed to LA-based indie label Little Assembly last year. No No Yeah Okay came together to combine their music as one group, releasing their debut EP, Dual in 2014. They have already released their single, “Make Believe” and an accompanying music video. You can check it out here. It has been well received, being added to Spotify’s New Music Friday and streamed over 114K times, as the group has been growing in both recognition and popularity.
Kicking off Cabal with “Boulevard”, a synth-filled track that is highlighted with streams of even vocals. “Get Lost” provides more of a soft-punk sound with electronica that is not over-the-top, but perfectly present. “Make Believe” blends soft pop with hip-hop beats, while “That Ain’t You” is an upbeat, catchy track melding tight pop sounds with clear vocals. “What Can I Say” is one of the most hip-hop/electronic of the tracks, combining snappy beats with flowing vocals. Cabal shows No No Yeah Okay as more experienced, synced, and mature.
At the end of November, Polish avant-pop duo Legumina released their debut album, a 11-track collection affectionately titled Something Pasty and Probably Yellow. But this album comes from a different place than many others come from, and it’s something we definitely took interest in right off the bat. Legumina is the marriage of two stunningly vibrant personalities who, as it just so happens, chose to end their romantic relationship quite some time ago. But in 2013, the pair of Mon Sadowska (vocals, lyrics) and Marcin Gręda (guitar, ukulele, electronics, laptop, earlier Letdown Dept.) chose to reconcile those differences enough to form a duo, and to create an album that seems to serve as both closure on their romantic past and as a new beginning for their artistic futures. It’s unique, well-written, and beautiful to a point that we have to make it known.
Beginning with light, staccato notes accompanied by strangely contrasting lines of voiceover, “(Not That) Yellow” makes you feel like you’re in a futuristic lullaby. Pair that with the slow, ethereal notes of “Berlin” and the twinkling sounds of “Probably June”, and Something Pasty and Probably Yellow starts out in this quirky, beautiful space that you would assume a She & Him album might steer toward. Once Sadowska’s vocals hit a track, even if it existed in another soundscape altogether, she immediately brings a fairy-like presence to it all. A fact that comes to us as incredibly quirky and endearing, especially with fourth track “Song of the Northern Pole” which – instrumentally, at least – does perfectly capture the way you assume being in the North Pole would feel. Fifth track “Swim Safety” plays a little more with dissonance in the intro, swirling into this impossibly gorgeous track.
As you reach “Parking Space Inequity”, you’re so used to the upbeat feel of its predecessors that you don’t quite expect the melancholic twinge to kick in at that point. With the pace of the lyrics versus the instrumentals, it almost feels like Legumina found their inspiration in aughts emo and punk music, but it’s been updated with an electro pop feel that slightly resembles trance music at a rave. While “Sink Sank Song” makes you feel like you’re actually inside a video game – which makes the song that much more fun -, “Short Guide to Palm Reading” is considerably less witchy than what we would assume from the title. We are 100% on board with the bizarre title of track 9, and totally agree with the sentiment that “Happiness Isn’t Happiness Without a Violin-playing Goat”. The name of the track itself made us feel like we were wandering back into that punk/emo inspiration, a la the long titles that Fall Out Boy and Panic! at The Disco have become known for. “Elementary” slows things down to a crawl – really returning to that lullaby feeling – and the band expertly rounds out the album with the track “Farewell Captain” (ft. Edyta Glinska) which audibly insists on the closure of the album. The audience feels a finite energy in this track, bittersweet in its delivery, much like the closure the duo found through the production of this album.
Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments!
Something Pasty and Probably Yellow is available now. Keep up with Legumina here.
Just last month, Wilmington, Delaware’s Impetus Records released a three track EP on behalf of now-defunct band The Subterraneans. Active from 2015 to 2016, the highly talented members of The Subterraneans – Seb Roat, Peter Furman, Gavin Powers, and Sam Greaves – recorded their self-titled EP during their sophomore year of high school. Replete with intense guitar licks, the EP begins with “Earl and Everette’s Day Out”, which feels like it single-handedly fills the room with smoke as you enjoy the lazy, beautiful, 70s-influenced sound. “Tercel” brings out more of a garage/punk feel with its increase in pace and the fact that it’s driven instead by percussion where its predecessor was driven by guitar chords, though it never quite meanders out of the warmth of nostalgic psych rock. “Hey Man” eases us out of the insanity, allowing the quartet to show off their innate ability to cover a variety of sounds as though they’re old pros. (In other words, they could never have been considered a one note song.)
Good luck scraping your jaw off the ground while listening to it.
The Subterraneans is available now. Get the best from Impetus Records here.
Los Angeles-based surf rock quartet Kat Myers & The Buzzards – comprised of namesake Kat Myers, Elliott Beenk, Johnny Elkins, and Jeff McElroy – recently dropped debut five track EP Owe Everybody Money. Riddled with music that was conceptualized after a sharp turn in her career path, Owe Everybody Money grants us a peek inside the mind of someone who grabbed life by the reigns when she realized it wasn’t going the way her heart wanted. Kat has developed a sound with her band that feels rugged, at times twangy – “Reluctant Love”, for instance, boasts more of an americana feel to it -, and pure rock at its core. (I mean, have you HEARD “Under The Rug” yet?) But it’s a completely genre-bending project, as her vocals do house a bit of a country vibe to them, but also feel similar to the crooning abilities of Mary Ramsey.
Third track “The Things I Love” begins with Myers capturing the listener’s attention by singing slightly off-key, giving the song a real kick of that independent, badass feeling that Myers looks to be establishing with the development of her sound. What is particularly curious is that the track was written as a commentary on Myers’ own religious upbringing, and is actually quite introspective if you slow down a bit to listen to the lyrical content. While “So Kind” has the lines that house the title of the EP, it is also a love letter of sorts, a country ballad at its finest. The band rounds out the EP with a slightly slower track, “Another Town Live At KCSN”, allowing the guitars to drive it in a way that is 70s psychedelia at its core. It’s a beautiful, enchanting way to end the work, and we can’t wait to show this one off to the family all weekend.
Owe Everybody Money is out now. Keep up with Kat Myers & The Buzzards here.
This weekend, Gainesville-based alternative rock/indie collective The Forum – comprised of Michael Higgins, Nick Wheeler, Jacob Farrell, and Alex Klausner – dropped a surprise 6 track EP into our laps, and we cannot tell you how thrilling it’s been to dig into it. Illuminate initiates its journey with the undeniably upbeat track “Father Hunger” – despite its quirky, almost existential, lyrics – that lures you charmingly right into mid-tempo track “My Chest Is Your Dance Floor”. The title itself is captivating, the song following the narrative of giving someone permission to, for lack of a better term, stomp all over you.
“Neurons” is led by an intricate and fun percussion section, the sound swirling into a relatively upbeat song with more of a veil over it, which can be found in the twinge of darkness in the vocals. By “Stop Singing”, we’re enveloped in bewitching guitar chords as a jazzy feel to the instrumentals appears and continues right into fifth track “Aftertaste”. In fact, there is something about the vocals that keep us playing this one on repeat, so it might take a minute for you guys to catch up as well, but last track “Blue Jay” is this intricately concocted layered track, beginning delicately and then tumbling into a cacophony of crashing symbols and passion. It’s presented as though the song begins as a timid, introvert of a specimen and slowly develops its ability to speak up and completely annihilate the environment around it.
A few weeks ago, Los Angeles based punk project ExSage (led by Kate Clover) released a three track EP titled Total Devotion. A work that seems to bring out the listener’s inner badass, it focuses on rough, dark guitar riffs and soul-infused vocals that ooze a mature and wide-reaching understanding of the music landscape of the last few decades. “Under Your Spell” is a track that vilifies the residual effects of a love interest’s pull on Clover’s heart strings. What Clover really does well is transports you with that vocal talent, bringing out the psychedelic, kaleidoscope-tinged feel of bluesy 70s rock, simultaneously worthy of modern play and beige leather fringe jackets. While “Come Alive” provides a truly toe-tapping beat that pulls from clear 80s rock with a little Madonna flare, “So Intertwined” really plays with synth and reverb to create a track that almost bounces from decade to decade with each new stanza, drawing the most party-ready sound into the fold just in time to amp you up for whatever life brings your way.
Total Devotion is out now. Keep up with ExSage here.
Last month, Brooklyn-based psych rock collective Ritual Talk – comprised of Alex DeSimine (Vocals, Guitar), Alex Tremitiere (Vocals, Bass), Tom Criblez (Vocals, Drums, Percussion), Dylan Gleit (Vocals, Guitar, Percussion), and TJ Alcala (Vocals, Keys) – released their simply beautiful debut five-track EP titled Rippled Glass. “Sense” takes advantage of its first slot on the EP, slowly layering in instrumentals after introducing smooth, harmonized vocals that implore you to “put away your phone and look me in the eye,” which provides a good jumping off point. (Because, why don’t you put away your phone to enjoy this release a bit? Unless you’re streaming it from your phone. Then keep your phone out.) It continues to crawl along, really displaying the vocal range the quintet is capable of. And while “Help, I’ve Been Dreaming” is an upbeat, almost glittering, it maintains verses that feel very 70s, with accompaniment that feels like 2000s pop rock.
“All in Blue” feels, once again, slightly more contemporary, but in a very easy-listening way. Add in the reverb-filled vocals, and you’re falling “deeper,” as the meaning of the EP’s title comes into full view, even as it “spills out of view.” “Follow You” almost makes no sense lyrically, and then you realize that the sentiment of the song is that of young love. If love is approached properly, neither of the responsible parties will end up following the other at all. Instead, it is important to meet your love interest where they are, and work together from where you are toward a life in tandem. It’s not easy, but the perspective with which this song has been written is beautiful and optimistic. “Dancing Still” rounds out the release, a more lyrically-involved track than its predecessors, layering in more of a pop sound as well. Simultaneously painting a picture of love – perhaps a twin flame type of take on things – and of the thrill of a love interest who enjoys dancing like no one is watching, the track has more than one place in your music library for its sound.
In fact, so does all of Rippled Glass. So get on it.
At the end of September, Austin-based indie/blues artist Jackie Venson released her dazzling five track Transcends EP. Starting it out with the upbeat track “Flying”, lines like “from the ashes something new grows” bring you into a more positive head space, more than adequately preparing you for the rest of the release. From second track “Fast” – which borders on 80s/early 90s synth rock with a Fefe Dobson-esque attitude to it – to smooth listening track “Mysterious” with its wider display of Venson’s range and exceptional use of ensemble vocals. “Fight” draws some more rasp from Venson’s voice, keeping an 80s sound to the instrumentals while singing about vibrational energy and – once again – looking forward to a positive existence and “the good fight.” Transcends closes out with its most completely rock track of them all – beginning with waning, rough guitar – the title track, which brings with it an edge to Venson’s voice that enhances the fact that not only did she come to play, she came to win.
Transcends is available now. Keep up with Jackie Venson here.
