“Bird Patterns” is the first single from Drug Country, a new project from the mind of gnawing’s John Russell, based in Richmond, Virginia. The effort started off as a side project to refresh from a prolific year with gnawing, the country rock ensemble that Russell fronts.

Ambient musician claire rousay’s first proper foray into more traditional song forms, sentiment, nonetheless opens with a spoken sample, “It’s 4pm on a Monday and I cannot stop crying.” Perhaps the clip makes sense for an artist who is best known for her work trying to coax emotionality out of the sounds of mundane tasks and ideas.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Alien Nosejob does it all, and its sole member Jake Robertson shows off this ability, and shines while doing it, on his sixth, most recent album, The Derivative Sounds Of…Or…A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit. That mouthful of words does not even begin to portray the wide range of musical styles touted on his fall 2023 release.

There’s a clarity to You Could Do It Tonight that sets it apart from much of Couch Slut’s earlier work. For one, as heavy as the mix is, there’s a ton of definition to it. While there’s undoubtedly charm to awful mixing on a hardcore record, the ideas here are well served to be heard in full force.

Following a move from Knoxville to Philadelphia, The Noisy are poised to released their debut album, The Secret Ingredient is More Meat, on May 24th. Led by poet and songwriter Sara Mae, the project came together over the past year, recording together with Jacob Lawter (Slow and Steady) in Tennessee.

Necrot are capable of sheer destruction but there’s a thoughtfulness to their songwriting, an intention beyond disgust and putridity. Lifeless Birth, their third album, is rooted in reality, an old school death metal record with a focus on modern times. Void of the cosmic, supernatural, and demonic, they explore the terrors of this world.

Their new record, Up on Gravity Hill, is the band ever so slightly departing from the signature METZ sound. They approach these songs with a, dare I say, “lighter touch” in response to some of the heavier subject matter thematically present on the record.  

Ekko Astral’s lyrics ideate a dissonance, disgust, and confusion, all while embodying the rich DC DIY scene. They never hesitate to call out the profiteers and architects of this apocalypse, but guide listeners towards solutions rooted in community care. The band’s music ushers in advocacy, optimism, and plans for a brighter tomorrow. 

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Experimenting with new arrangements and recording methods, Community College continues to shrug at the trivial and chuckle at the mundane with SCHMOMCO. John Margaris spoke about the album, the beginnings of Community College, the Boston scene, and being intentional in more ways than just writing music. 

Has anyone been asking for an album that can unite fans of Van Halen and Suicide? Doesn’t matter, we have it now. Jean Mignon is a solo project from NYC-via-Boston noise impresario Johnny Steines. He borrows the name of a 16th century French engraver to plunge into a breakneck, blistering river of feedback.

Feller are a new band comprised of some familiar faces, namely Pete Willson (Cafe Racer) and Ethan Toenjes (Old Coke). Set to release their debut EP, Universal Miracle Worker, on May 28th via Angel Tapes, the duo’s sound relies on something bigger than it’s skeletal make-up. There’s a bit of “post everything” at play here.

“Post-punk’s latest poster boys” ask Where’s My Utopia? on their newest album, a tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, and groovy record. They create a very dynamic and lighthearted kind of sound, which shows how much they’ve grown since The Overlord. Listening to this album is immersive and feels transcendent, like entering a vivid dreamscape.

The Pilgrim, Their God, and The King of My Decrepit Mountain is a fantastically listenable record whose somewhat cryptic narrative never distracts from the truly great songs and detailed arrangements, and instead only increases the intriguing nature of it all. It's both digestible and obtuse, and in that contradiction the album finds its magic.

No one song on the record sounds much like the others, and as her role in the ensemble shifts from song to song, Rosali's voice and vantage point shifts, too. Rather than being an inconsistency, this is a unique, characteristic strength of Rosali's artistry. With Bite Down, she becomes multitudinous.

David DiAngelis is the artistic stamina behind the Brooklyn-based bedroom project, Helenor. His sophomore record, A public place, has become an embodiment of his last few years of transition. He spoke with Post-Trash’s Shea Roney about the movement in his life and the changes he made in the name of betterment.  

Returning with her sophomore album, One Million Love Songs, Viscius is now boldly taking on another one of the most complicated components of being human; love. Recorded in Asheville with production help from Alex Farrar, the album finds Bnny in confident forward motion as she learns to embrace everything that love throws at her.

Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, where we recap the past week in music. We're sharing our favorite releases of the week in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "further listening" section of new and notable releases from around the web.

Wrapped in Cellophane is the debut from Atlanta quartet Vessel who traffic in post-punk with some unexpectedly exotic flourishes and sparse bobbing hooks punctuated by Alex Tuisku's lyrics. The band’s sound is full of space, led by remarkably flexible rhythms and an unstoppable ability to find the ever shifting groove.

Fully Beat finds the melody-penchant quartet digging further into some of the classic shoegaze sounds and textures they explored so successfully on 2022’s Windowpane EP. Today the band is sharing “Beat,” a shimmering and subtle pop number that gives a great hint of what to expect when Fully Beat is released on May 24th. 

After a five-year gap, the American rock band from Walla Walla arrives with a new studio album, Live Laugh Love. Recorded in three different sessions over a couple of years, the album marks the first time all four members sing, and they enjoy every second of it despite the ambivalent emotions they sing about.

The record displays feelings some would describe as bitter towards growing up, however they’re portrayed shamelessly, which also translates into immense emotional growth. Not all people engage in confronting uncomfortable emotions, but Pouty does just that within her album Forgot About Me.

With a weekend tour kicking off on Saturday, Dover, New Hampshire’s Tiny Wine are back at it. The duo of Chri Milton and Vertro Ubretl return four years after the release of the Archer EP with new single “Replace It,” a humming piece of lo-fi indie rock about hastily filling voids that aren’t ready to be filled.

While her previous releases showcased her arresting voice and undeniable spirit, they feel reserved in comparison to the new record. LATE SLAP is teeming with life, in all its joy, heaviness, and whimsy. It’s teeming with music: beautiful, uncanny layers of voice, a menagerie of synth tones, guitar jangles, tasteful strings and enthralling melodies.

When Marnie Stern took a hiatus, after being lauded as an upcoming guitar hero, the question on the tip of everyone’s tongues was “Where’s Marnie?” In conversation, she walks me through the pillars of her performance – what has stuck throughout this past decade, and what makes her uniquely herself.

When you take the album as a whole, Sam Evian’s Plunge can fit both within those sometimes tritely constructed categories of “classic” and “modern” rock. Well, maybe in the sense that you cannot really define its timeline. All for the right reasons.

The fourth song of the record, “Behave,” featuring Lonna Kelley of Giant Sand, is accompanied by a music video by Phoenix-based visual artist Kenaim. The videos offer a montage of beautiful, familiar scenes that quickly evolve and morph into one another effortlessly.

Adrianne Lenker is one of contemporary American folk music’s poets in residence. Between her song writing in Big Thief and her solo project, she manages to create worlds that feel so familiar, but then intertwine them with transcendentalist romanticism, rendering these views slightly more esoteric and impalpable.

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death are back at it again with Thirds, their new record, due out June 22nd. Written over what could be described as a strange few years for the world, the band’s corrosive structures are propulsive and delightfully off-kilter, but fully realized, the push and pull working in favor of their melodic core.