New music Tuesday ~ Halestorm, Trash Boat, Trophy Eyes, and Houndmouth

I think I've listened to four new albums since the last one I mentioned, which was Gorillaz. (Side note: I decided to relisten to Taylor Swift's Red and man, that album is so much better than I remembered. Just skip the pop singles and enjoy.) Okay, let's talk new music!

First we have Vicious by Halestorm. If you like good, straightforward rock n roll with killer vocals, this is an easy listen. To me, Halestorm has always been good but only made great by Lzzy Hale's vocals. They're not doing anything new and the songs aren't the most standout or creative, but that's kind of the point. With that comes consistency. Sometimes you just wanna rock, and you can rock right out to this. Definitely recommended - I think it's my favorite of their albums - and I'll be spinning it a lot come Rocktober. That's what this is, an album made for Rocktober. You want that vibe, you got it.

I don't dislike any song here, but a few favourites are "Killing Ourselves to Live" (great 80s singalong chorus), "Black Vultures," "White Dress," and "Vicious" ("what doesn't kill me makes me vicious" YUSSSSSSSSSSSSS)

Next up is Crown Shyness by UK band Trash Boat. I'd seen this name pop up in relation to Creeper, but only checked them out after positive buzz about their new album. And yeah, I dig the hell out of this. Pop punk that rocks, or rock that... pop punks? Despite my love of some of the older pop punk and emo bands, I haven't gotten into a lot of the newer stuff. Maybe my tastes have just matured since then, though I do still listen to the old stuff. Just not much was clicking with me on that front - until Trash Boat. They're not that "standard" pop punk sound which can get old and samey pretty fast. They're also not that screamy hardcore sound which makes me feel like someone's trying to jam large pieces of furniture in my ears. There's an element of that, but it's not overdone. I really like the balance they strike here - easy to listen to, but enough edge to keep it from being boring.

Again, this is a good listen all the way through for me, but a few favourites are "Undermine," "Old Soul," "Inside Out," and the slower, very feel-y title track if you want some old school emo vibes.

I continued in a similar vein with another buzzy band, Australia's Trophy Eyes. These guys hit me upside the head (in a good way!) with the opening of their song "You Can Count on Me" - "Some of my friends sell drugs, but I just sell sad songs" they shout, in one of the most singalong, anthemic choruses I've heard in awhile. So I checked out The American Dream hoping to find more of that attitude and well, on the whole this album isn't for me. It has too much of those modern poppy touches I don't like, the gang vocals and the "whoa ohs."

However! In addition to "You Can Count on Me," there are two songs here I really love and want to shout out. Continuing with the "sad song" theme we have "Autumn" - "Keep your home in your heart, keeps you out of the rain, don't let those sad songs rot your brain." Yeah, that's about as emo as it gets but it's also GREAT. And it references The Killers' Sam's Town which I've been playing the hell out of all year, so yeah. THEN there's "I Can Feel it Calling," a six-minute fucking rock n roll anthem I've been listening to almost nonstop. Seriously, if you like big, arena-ready songs, check this out. It has the crashing guitars and drums your little rock n roll heart has been craving. Also, this Killersesque kind of song suits the singer's voice way more than the poppier stuff does. I hope they go more in this mature direction in the future, because they are way too talented to just pander to "the kids." This is a legit rock band that I hope is in the process of coming into their own.

Last we have Golden Age by Houndmouth and ummm... did no one tell these guys MGMT already released an album this year? Pop production strikes again. :( It's worse than kudzu. Look, this is not a band I want to be snarky about; I want to support smaller bands and I still have their song "Sedona" in heavy rotation. It's also fine that they changed their sound. They weren't an easy band to label in the first place. But... I couldn't get through most of this album. Several songs, including the opener, are just a distorted mess over an electropop beat. The song "Golden Age" literally sounds like a straight MGMT rip. I like MGMT in small doses, but I don't need another one. And that's one of the more listenable songs. "This Party" gave me horrible flashbacks to Weezer trying too hard in the 2000s. Like Raditude, who is this album even FOR?

HOWEVER! There's one song on this album I love, and another I like, so let's end on a positive. "Modern Love" is a lovely, hooky guitar song with an easy summer vibe, and when the hints of distortion come in they really work in contrast to the more organic sound. If the album had been more like this, I would have loved it. "Waiting for the Night" is also pretty interesting. You have a catchy chorus that sounds straight out of the late 70s or early 80s, a riff that really reminds me of early Belle and Sebastian for some reason, and fuzzy, distorted guitars that again work in contrast to the rest of the song, rather than swallowing it whole. This is a cool, layered track that shows what the band can do when they're trying. I really don't know what they were doing on most of this album though.

So overall, the past month has been pretty great for me. Three full albums I dig (including Gorillaz), and a handful of cool songs from albums I was middling-to-negative on. I'm generally a full album person, but when I can mine even a few new songs from an album I'm pretty happy. I just want fresh music.

Here's a summer playlist featuring all this* and more! A few of the songs are from last year.

*except "Autumn." I can't put a song called "Autumn" on a summer playlist, my aesthetic will explode into a black hole.

https://open.spotify.com/user/emperorcupcake22/playlist/7pW57VXuMCYSs3PX5g0vy6

New Music Tuesday

I haven't listened to The Killers' new album yet. It's gotten kinda "okay" reviews and of the three songs I heard, only this one grabbed me. But boy, did it ever grab me. This is my official Rocktober™ jam, crank it!

New music Tuesday

From their 2015 debut album, here's some lush, jangly, 90s-esque girlypop from Wolf Alice.

New Music Tuesday

This album was released earlier this year, but I just found it this past month. If you're looking for a cool, vintage California feel, skip Lana del Rey and go for Best Coast. This isn't "deep" music, but it isn't trying to be.



Bonus! Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino guests on a track from Weezer's AMAZING 2014 album Everything Will Be Alright in the End:



There's a lot of shitty "retro" inspired music out there right now - Meghan Trainor, Thomas Rhett, etc., but this is how you do it right. This sounds like real, organic music, not a cheesy school play about the 60s.

New music Tuesday

Oh, it pains me to make a new post. I so wanted "Seriously, fuck onions. And Hitler" to be my last message from 2015. It's just... so fitting.

But we must carry on, and for a good cause. Music! I'll probably be doing this for a while on Tuesdays. It won't always be new new music, just new to me. I've got your days covered like days of the week underwear! or something.

Rolling Stone managed to spit forth another gem in their top 50 songs of 2015. This is the latest single from Kentucky garage-psychedelic-alt-rock band Cage the Elephant.



If you make a modern rock song that genuinely invokes the 70s, chances are I'll like it. And boy, do they nail that sound with "Trouble." The description for this song referenced "Crimson and Clover," which would legit be on my 10 favorite rock songs EVER list that I'll probably never make, proving that RS does still know what they're talking about when they actually try.

My brief overview of Cage the Elephant shows a cool discography. A lot of their singles are more uptempo and rollicking, some bluesy rock, really good stuff. I will slowly go through all their records within the next year, cause I like what I'm hearing. And as fun as the uptempo songs are, "Trouble" hits that sweet spot for me of a more mellow, yet still rocking, just plain cool song.

I'll just ignore the fact that this was #47, way below such musical masterpieces as "Trap Queen," "Fuck Up Some Commas," and "High By the Beach," and be happy it was put out there for discovery.