‘Gauze’ is a great start, chugging along before blossoming into the chorus, “Do you remember how we used to be / cologne in the bathroom where we used to read”, eventually gathering enough momentum to unloose itself in the finale, a cathartic end in which Coffman is joined by backing vocals. ‘Heater’ feels more jangle pop, although there is still plenty of racing electric guitars to give that spiky edge. The vocals sound sadly romantic rather than just plain sad, revealing thoughts on a difference of expectation and unrequited advances (“I feel so useless when I’m around you / you collect it all up but I’m barely another friend”). ‘Fall Out’ has this big clanging guitar in the background and a marching drumbeat, giving things a dark and vaguely defiant air, like the slow and steady progress through some desolate wasteland, which I guess is a pretty apt metaphor for many an adolescence. The track’s tangible, pounding mass is juxtaposed by the soft and dreamy vocals which seem resigned to something, the steely realisation that comes after shame and disappointment.

‘Lily’ is dark and brooding, its big guitars elevating a sense of internal turmoil rather than some trite epic tendency, while acoustic guitars dominate on ‘Cool Back’, a reserved and melancholy interlude in the loud indie rock. The slow and sweet opening to ‘Champ’ belies its subject matter, which feels sore and raw, like an open wound (“You were right all that time / to feel like nothing you said made any difference”), while ‘Trade Up’ is another slice of shoegazy indie pop. ‘Dragging’ is tense and meditative shoegaze (“I spend a lot of time thinking of the way I let my parents down”), before closer ‘Long Hair’ epitomises the rawness of the album as a whole:

“It was like you said I stayed up for months
Will this damn headache open up for once?
Like I loved you in the first place”

Moving Away seems to be set in the calm between storms, a long hot summer before the next period of a young and troubled life. A moment of reflection that offers some people perspective, a clean slate, and drives others insane with anguish and regret. It conjures a feeling like driving around deserted streets at 3am because anything is better than trying to fall asleep listening to the whir inside your head. Like previous Gleemer releases, Moving Away is very human and intimate and simultaneously elemental, some of the crashing instrumentation suggesting that these feelings and changes go far beyond the individuals involved, characters doomed to universal worries and failings, trapped in the same destructive and self-repeating cycles.

You can get Moving Away as a name-your-price download via the Gleemer Bandcamp page, or on cassette via 80N7.

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Tracklisting:

1. By My Side – Valley Maker
   2. Shadow Play – Tierpark
   3. West Texas – PWR BTTM
   4. Console – Joplin Rice
   5. Lightning Dream Shuffle – Will Stratton (for Genius Loci)
   6. Dazed By You – PINS
   7. Y U – Fanpage
   8. The Rest – Alex Bleeker and the Freaks
   9. I’m Not – Hoshifo
   10. Nothing, Just Looking at the Moment – Lejsovka & Freund
   11. Stole Ur Bike – Boosegumps
   12. Our Headache Years – Nudes
   13. Worry, Glory – The Silence Set
   14. Sand – Frankie Cosmos
   15. xplodineyez – Field Medic
   16. Walking The Line – Sam Moss
   17. Bedroom – Alanna McArdle
   18. Tired – Captain Samurai
   19. Birds – M Caridi & The Glow
   20. Gardensong – Funeral Advantage
   21. Snow Bird – Ama Moii
   22. So Long, Suzie (The Damage is Done) – Morning River Band
   23. Cracks in the Sidewalk – Naomi Pop
   24. Burn This – Mauno
   25. What Coast – Grubs
   26. Pulled Over – Generifus
   27. EZ River – Wilder Maker

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Ahead of said release, the band have unveiled the first single, ‘Tired’. The song captures pretty much everything that’s great about 80N7 releases, ramshackle rock accompanied with the forced indifference of cool youth. That said, Captain Samurai break the illusion of hipness by revving themselves past apathy, the song building into a cacophonous, angsty catharsis where instruments are pounded and Diaz howls with his heart on his sleeve. Take that, fashionable detachment!

Hey Thanks Goodbye will be released by 80N7 in November and you can pre-order it via their bandcamp page. And why not check out the band’s previous music while you wait?

Photo by Albert Gonzalez, art by Amador Diaz

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The release starts as it means to go on, with ‘Jansport’ lurching through your speakers from the first second, sounding like a scuffed up Abe Vigoda meets Todd Goldstein’s ARMS, a catchy pop song pleasingly skewed. ‘#12 Looks Just Like You’ follows suit, starting with an almost CFTPA opening before unravelling into a sloppy rock song with the cool/crazy apathetic lyrics: “Wake up or go to sleep, why even try, why even try? It’s all feeling the same to me. I’m ready to die, I’m ready to die”. ‘Slow Dark Water’ finds Furnsss at their most energetic and interested, the slacker vibe lowered ever so slightly to let in a chink of pop-punk light. The song starts slowly and builds in intensity, as we wrote in our preview:

“[Slow Dark Water] gradually gathers in pace and energy and by the halfway point you feel as though you are aboard a runaway train, the inevitable smash-up dropping just after the two-minute mark as the track descends into a cacophony of drums and some pretty mean guitar work”

The EP closes with ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’, a track you might recognise from 80N7’s All-American Edition. In our review of the compilation we described the “ominous deadbeat disinterest” of the track, and we’d stand by this sentiment. The antithesis of the titular trope, the song exudes a pissed-off swagger somewhere between cool, mean and bored, tapping its foot, rolling its eyes and sauntering off without so much as a glance back in your direction.

You can buy New Moves now via the 80N7 Bandcamp page, including a special edition 7″ which ships next week.

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The May Roundup mix below contains a track from every artist we featured during the month (apart from Sharon van Etten and Noah Gundersen, sorry!), so plug your headphones in and enjoy some new music. Click the artists’ names in the tracklisting below to be taken to the post in question.

Tracklisting:

1. No More Sad Songs – Elvis Depressedly
2. Catchyalater – Frog
3. The Day Draws Near – The Washboard Abs
4. Every House is On Fire – Island Eyes
5. Forever – Boosegumps
6. Open Casket Hidden Meaning – Molly Drag
7. The Arp – Aidan Knight
8. Atheist Money – Adam Stafford
9. Lynx – The Tarantula Waltz
10. Milo – Young Jesus
11. Slow Dark Water – Furnsss
12. Aubrey – Debris Slide
13. Foreign Hands – Aisha Badru
14. I Need Never Get Old – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
15. Outside the Pale – Samantha Crain
16. Home – The Modern Folk
17. Staggers and Rise – Small Houses
18. Yannina – Jake Houlsby
19. To the Black Horizon – Mark Timmins
20. Heart – Bobby’s Oar
21. Bling – Bells Atlas
22. And You Meant the Sea – Ruth & Trudy
23. Party – Lake Michigan
24. Growing Leaves – Gay Angel
25. On and On – Zee Town and the Dog Boys
26. Travel Map – Hip Hatchet
27. Zoa – Batte Ave.
28. The Bird – Kathryn Joseph
29. …Until They’re Called – Old Earth

May 2015 Roundup from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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Old Earth

“Has this trance-like quality that is almost impossible to describe…It’s music that isn’t satisfied with making pretty sounds in the background, that gets right to the root of things” – New EP …until they’re called sees Old Earth in typically scintillating form.

The Washboard Abs

“Sad but in a cosy, reassuring way…like being alone in an empty room on a rainy afternoon, when the not-quite-twilight has that blue-grey quality and the only sounds are raindrops on the glass and the shooooshing of passing cars” – WHATEVERLAND by The Washboard Abs is the second great Z Tapes release in a week.

The Tarantula Waltz

“Reminds us that no matter how hard, life holds pockets of goodness and wonder, providing moments of fierce, bright joy which light up the dark” – Lynx EP by Swedish folkster The Tarantula Waltz

Molly Drag

“Sad and remorseful in a child-like sort of way, the existential anxiety of adults not yet formed so that his grief can occupy a pure, selfless sort of level” – ‘Open Casket Hidden Meaning’, the brand new track by Molly Drag.

Furnsss

“A return of the gloriously sloppy rock that Furnsss purvey” – Burlington lo-fi rock act announce new EP via our good pals at 80N7.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

“Continues with the jaunty, boisterous vibes that set apart Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats from his solo work, sounding like mid-barroom, drunk-but-honest proclamations” – Nathaniel Rateliff gathers his band in anticipation of their debut EP.

Aidan Knight

“Starts off as a smooth and kinda groovy soft rock track which threatens several crescendos before the horned-filled celebratory climax around the halfway mark” – Aidan Knight has put out a new song in preparation for his third album, coming this autumn on Outside Music.

Small Houses

“So here’s the deal. You pledge on small amount of money in return for a digital download pre-order, and Quentin gets to make a new record and eat something other than craisens” – Small Houses needs your help on GoFundMe to make his new album.

Eskimeaux

“It’s about finally feeling okay with not feeling okay” – Impose has a substantial piece on Eskimeaux’s new album, O.K.

The Epoch

“A sweet, introspective sort of songwriting is the tendency, though hardly the rule. As an inspiring support system and model for artistic collaboration, their cult following is quickly growing” – The Epoch Collective find themselves in good company in Brooklyn Magazine’s round-up of the twenty people defining Brooklyn music in 2015.

Matheny / Molina

“Molina always seemed to know exactly which cards not to show, and with his deep body of work created music that is somehow both haunting and comforting in equal measure” – William Matheny of Southeast Engine shares his memories of Jason Molina and serves up a great cover of ‘Just Be Simple’, all over at Common Folk Music.

Best of 2015

A week late on this but the ever-reliable Gimme Tinnitus has put together a list of the best music of 2015 thus far. Well worth digging through to uncover a few unheard gems.

Nick Cave / DrFasutusAU

A few weeks late on this but it’s worth sharing: Artist DrFaustusAU has drawn a Dr Seuss-style cartoon version of Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’. You can read more about it on Faster Louder or click the image below to see the whole storybook.

Protest Music

“A reminder that soulful dissent can be both entertaining and politically efficacious. Soulful protest is the work of skillful musicians using their gifts and raising their voices to recreate the world so that everyone has an opportunity to fully participate and no one else’s voice ever again has to remain suppressed or unheard” – Jason King over on at NPR Music has put together 100 hours of protest music, using R&B and the genres which came before that helped form the genre.

Frog

“An attempt to engage modern musical ideas from a 1950s style of arrangement… [it] was a complete failure in that respect but a success in most others” – The Line of Best Fit are streaming Kind Of Blah, the new album from Frog that could well be the soundtrack of your summer.

Summer Camp

“Inspired by 90s Point Horror and Fear Street books and teen horror films, and the idea that a bad relationship can be just as terrifying as a serial killer” – Noisey are streaming Summer Camp’s Bad Love before it’s release next week on Moshi Moshi.

Shamir

And finally, Shamir walked around Brooklyn and played some songs for La Blogotheque:

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The band have unveiled a single from the EP, ‘Slow Dark Water’, which sees the return of the gloriously sloppy rock that Furnsss purvey. However, this time the vocals are elevated from the fuzz, no longer submerged in indifference but placed front and centre. The track gradually gathers in pace and energy and by the halfway point you feel as though you are aboard a runaway train, the inevitable smash-up dropping just after the two-minute mark as the track descends into a cacophony of drums and some pretty mean guitar work.

Stay tuned to 80N7 for further details on the EP!

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Boston rocker Jake Rollins first came to our attention on the second volume of 80N7’s super cool compilations. The label are obviously big fans because they have just put out Spend a Few, Make a Few, Rollins’s new album, which is stocked full of catchy lo-fi indie rock, guaranteed to get your feet tapping and head nodding and generally make your day that little bit brighter. You see, Rollins one of our favourite kinds of musician, that is, the kind who makes music because it’s lots and lots of fun, which to me is as good a reason as any to do just about anything. I know this because it is clearly apparent in his songs, you can just tell they were made by a man doing his own thing and enjoying himself.

But trying to cut it as a young indie musician (even one as cool as Rollins) is no walk in the park. Lots of the songs on the album touch upon themes of self-doubt and that general creeping feeling that maybe there is something better you should be doing with your time (an emotion not unfamiliar with small-time music bloggers, trust me). See for example the opening track, ‘Maybe I’m Wasting My Time’, in which he sings, “Trying to make it sound cool, playing the drum out of tune / Why is music so fun? Maybe because I’m so young / Or maybe I’m wasting my time”, and again on ‘Rattle & Hiss’ which includes the line, ‘Do you know how much time I’ve wasted thinking about all the time I’ve wasted?” These emotions are most clearly expressed on ‘All the Good Things’, which slows things down to a slinking swagger as Rollins sings, “I don’t know why I’m sad, all the good things are bad”.

What’s really good about the album is that despite expressing these anxieties, Rollins produces 11 tracks that are lots of fun to listen to and are more likely to cause positive thoughts to come bubbling to the surface. Inadvertently or otherwise, he seems to solve all of his worries as he sings about them. What’s better than carefree rock and roll when you need to see the good in things. The fact is, Rollins hasn’t been wasting his time at all, and all the proof is right here. Try listening as the composed verses veer into a screechy instrumental chorus on ‘Your Voice’, or to the sinuous guitars that open ‘Out of Tune’, and try telling me this isn’t pretty great.

On top of everything else, his timing is impeccable. Spring is finally starting to commence, meaning summer is just around the corner, meaning there will soon be no shortage of warm sunny evenings to drive around with your windows down and forget about the bad things for a while. If you know what’s good for you, your stereo will be blaring Jake Rollins as you go.

You can get Spend a Few, Make a Few via the 80N7 Bandcamp page and can be downloaded for however much you’d like to give. This includes absolutely nothing at all, but for pete’s sake try to spare a few pounds/dollars/magic beans, Jake deserves it.

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January was a bit of a scrappy month in terms of regular posts, but we still managed to cover some excellent artists. Why not catch up with any you missed with this tailor-made mixtape? Click the artist names in the tracklist to be whisked off to the review.

Tracklist:

1. Jesus in the 70s – Siskiyou
2. 2 Broke 2 Old – Gorgeous Bully
3. Another Way To Go – Adeline Hotel
4. Scene Sick – Diet Cig
5. Dog Burial Theme – Dicktations
6. Up the Academy – Mike Pace and the Child Actors
7. Con/ A Sewer/A Cat – Amateur Love
8. The End is a Vicious Thing – Puzzlecuts
9. Manic Pixie Dream Girl – Furnsss
10. Party Girls – Gleemer
11. Soft Reputation – Unlikely Friends
12. Passing Through – Harley Alexander
13. Coward’s Luck – Hip Hatchet
14. Memphis – The Wandering Lake
15. How a Resurrection Really Feels – The Hold Steady
16. Fire in My Eyes – Yours Are The Only Ears
17. Traffic is Okay – Sitcom
18. Gold & Rose – Dear Sister

Also make sure you check out our mammoth collection of our Favourite ‘Free’ Music of 2014. Finally, if you enjoy long, rambling pieces that try and draw connections between my favourite music and my favourite books, check out this piece on The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday (Craig Finn said he enjoyed it, so it carries his stamp of approval).

January 2015 Roundup from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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Gleemer released a really good album last year. It was called Holyland USA and it made our Favourite Free Music List. If you were a fan then you are in for a treat. The band are back with a new EP, No Goodbyes. As the line of blurb I pasted above suggests, the songs are about a party, or more specifically the end of a party and the unhappy people it leaves behind. The EP sees the Colorado duo reign in their shoegazey atmospherics a little, opting for a more precise brand of grungey indie rock.

No Goodbyes is dark and unsettling, the ghosts of crippling anxiety and alcoholic dads rippling near the surface of everything. The aftermath of this party is not merely a hangover and a vague sense of regret, not some silly tears because Johnny wouldn’t stop looking at Cindy’s legs in that skirt. No, this party ends with dad under the tires of your pickup, with your uncle melting in a puddle of gasoline.

You can get No Goodbyes on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Gleemer Bandcamp page. Alternatively you can pre-order the EP on cassette via our good friends over at 80N7. Co-released with Gold Flake Tapes, the cassette will also feature Gleemer’s 2013 release, A Brother on the Carpet and a Brother at the Beach, as an exclusive, first-time-on-tape B-side. Order now to get the tape at the start of March.

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