You are currently viewing the bark list (october 29 – november 3, 2021) new music from ceschi, heele, uncis, indigaux, and the knife kickers!

the bark list (october 29 – november 3, 2021) new music from ceschi, heele, uncis, indigaux, and the knife kickers!

Welcome to another CT music round-up: The Bark List!  There’s a lot of great music out this week, both in terms of albums and singles, but I will ask something of you, dear reader.  You may be tempted — nay, lustful! — to buy these new songs and records right now, but I’ll ask that you wait until 11/5 (this Friday).  You see, it’s the first Friday of the month, which means that Bandcamp is waiving its usual (small) platform fee, so artists are to get the biggest cut possible.  Or, if you aren’t in a position to throw a few bucks there way, spread the word about the songs you like, and see if you can convince a friend to buy something?  Or!  Maybe I’ll choose five people and convince them to buy a song from Bandcamp, and then those five people will be asked to find five people of their own, and we’ll just straight up LuLaRoe this shit.  Many of these bands are also playing live shows now (check out our event calendar for Only Good Gigs [tm]), so if you go, make sure you take a mask and don’t be a weirdo.

Our special picks this week are the new EP from HEELE (Oceata), the 7+ minute Ceschi track “2020 BC”, and the indie-twang Farmer from The Post Valley Green.

Check out this Bark List’s songs below, and as always, if you like what you hear: share it with a friend!  And if you have the means, consider buying their music.  Spotify is nice and all, but unless you plan on streaming a song multiple hundred times, Bandcamp is best. I know that tracking down songs on Bandcamp can be a pain in the ass, so if you discover new music on Spotify, consider throwing your playlists into this tool to quickly track down the Bandcamp page of these artists: https://hypem.com/merch-table/ .

You can follow us on instagram and twitter for more music during the week.


Albums + EPS:

Brandon Dunlap – Heavy Idle

Back in August, we wrote about Fade to Pharoah, a project recorded by Brandon Dunlap.  This week, Dunlap released Heavy Idle, a frantic and spooky post-punk record.  As crisp and crunchy as stepping on a dead leaf in a cemetery before sunrise.  How cool is this record?  Its “limited edition” cassette came in a small box filled with dried moss. 


A Collaborative Effort – A Collaborative Effort

This new mixtape, from the collaborative efforts of Fisher Thompson, Griffin Kopsick, and Jack Murphy, is a great, free-flowing vibe of an album.  Straddles the line between hip-hop production and dreamwave indie, perfect for the moments between thoughts.  You know that realm of consciousness where you’ve been driving for 3 hours straight and you just relax and become one with the present?


Designated Hitter – Cold Summer

Earlier in October, Designated Hitter dropped “Worse Off”, and they’ve wrapped up the month with a new 5-song EP.  Each song is a new sub-genre, effectively showcasing a new side of the band.  It’s almost like this is a sampler of five other bands that are all united by the same lyrical themes and tones.  This is a good thing.


HEELE – Oceata

The new, second EP from Michael Henss’ project expands on his impressive debut.  The melodies are bigger, the production is bigger, the ambition is bigger. And not to get too heady about it, but what I love about Oceata is something that My Emu is Emo brought up in her review: the dichotomy between the synthesized, technological frame of the world with the more human elements on the inside. That dichotomy works for the very structure of these songs: while the skeleton of the song may be created with synthesized elements, none of it works without Henss’ strong sense of melody and vivid lyrics. Without the heart, the machine fails! I think that’s what I learned in Metropolis (1927) anyways.


Jodonut – What’s the Deal?

Nihilism and despair.  Doom.  This record sounds like a truly haunted space: six tracks and half a million ideas.  What’s the Deal? is filled with great beats, vivid lyrics, strong production choices, but James Hooker doesn’t let any one element dominate the album for too long before pulling the rug out and surprising you with something new. 


Nahadoth – Thanking the Leaves

Of the many sides of Adam Matlock’s music projects, we maybe love Nahadoth the most.  Returning after July’s The Green, Regenerating, this new album is a chilly, gloomy record just in time for the weeks that Connecticut turns chilly and gloomy.  The field recordings and reverberating piano sound as if this music comes to us from across the lake, emerging from the fog somewhere.  A score for a silent film; a prayer for life; a whisper seen leaving as smoke.


Pineal – Antarctica

New debut EP from Chris Kilbourn (guitars in SAP and Proxima Centauri)!  But on Antarctica, Sweet Christopher plays every instrument himself, crafting out goth post-rock.  Weaves in the grandeur of a Sigur Ros with the heartache of The Cure.   Recorded by Sans Serif Recordings in New Haven.


The Post Valley Green – Farmer

Everyone thinks of Connecticut as this upper-suburban grid of homes, but you know as well as I do that so much of CT is just beautiful hills, forests, and rivers.  It’s a pretty place!  And The Post Valley Green remind me of that – their indie-twang is as lived-in as a tree trunk, or as comfortable as the soft grass on a hillside at sunset. 


Pushing Daisies – Happy Thoughts

How can I resist an EP that starts with a song called “All Dogs Go to Heaven”?  You may remember that track from August, and since then, Pushing Daisies has released Happy Thoughts, a four-song hard-hitting emo cascade.  Packed with big melodies and a muscular rhythm section.  Alternate title: Sad Vibes.


UNCIS – Kids Outside

We were so stoked to hear UNCIS’s Your Majesties, their debut album from earlier this year.  We were even more stoked to hear that this wouldn’t even be the duo’s only album of 2021.  Kids Outside expands on exactly what made Your Majesties great: wonderfully vivid lyrics with warm, deceptively simple and pleasurable production.


Singles:

A Will Away – “Karma”

(A Haiku) Naugatuck’s Finest // What goes around must make laps // This song fucking slaps.


BRIYO – “Darekaga Itsuka (Session Ver.)

What starts as a relaxed ballad erupts with a guitar solo, introducing a sudden rush of new feelings.  And in true BRIYO fashion, he dials it back, switching it up before you get too comfortable.  And that’s how love feels, innit?  You can only find this one on Bandcamp!


Ceschi – “2020 BC”

Legend has it that Ceschi recorded this in a straight one-take.  This folk punk odyssey was originally released as a live video in November 2020, but it’s now available on your preferred streaming service.  I’ll warn you, though, there’s some hard truths in this one, but what else would you expect from Ceschi?  Each new couplet of this 7-minute banger is a new call to action, and the sparse arrangement (it’s just him and an acoustic guitar) invites these words to grab you by your shoulders and shake you.


Drummi – “A Course in Reggae”

Hey who says that DIY music can’t be educational?  CJ Dioguardi (of Ghost Tones, Graduate Records, and Heart Shaped Lakes) provides a blissful backdrop as samples of blokes talking about reggae play in the foreground.  Lowkey hoping that we get an “A Course in…” series of genre songs.


The End of America – “Empty Sea (Reprise)”

The End of America have a new album coming out this month: Night is Alive.  The final single before its release (11/12), “Empty Sea (Reprise)” will be familiar to anyone who has seen the band live – it’s been a cornerstone of their set.  A gleaming, cathartic rush.  The band describe the song: ““the higher you climb the mountain, the steeper it gets, all the while howling out across what feels like an empty sea below. You have to maintain faith in yourself and keep pushing to reach the summit. And maybe you can’t do it alone. For us, this song has been our anthem for being in a band.”


Fast River – “I Don’t Know Anything”

A new single from the band ahead of their upcoming record, Revelry!  Be sure to check out their previous single “Why You’re Still Single”, if this one hits you the way it hits me.


Indigaux – “Yandere Bitch!” + “Tricc or Treat” (Prod. Jirou)

Recently NHV legend Indigaux released a pair of tracks to soundcloud, both produced by Jirou.  And as always with Indigaux’s music, these songs are short and sweet, with every one of them ending with lines that cut so deep, there’s no choice but to drop the mic.  You can’t find these on other streaming services yet, so be sure to follow them on the cloud.


Inertial – “Dreaming”

Jackson Searfoss’s new Inertial record is coming out soon (November 12), but you can hear two tracks from it right now!  The newest sneak peek is “Dreaming”, a tightly-wound post-rock landscape. 


The Knife Kickers – “Lucifur”

Holy fuck, a new Knife Kickers record is coming out soon?  This band is a personal favorite of ours, so give ‘em a listen?  The last we heard from Johnny Z was their magnificent split with Sincera ( ______ told me to slow down…).  Their new record, Where Does All The Dust Come From? drops November 4th and features Mike Barry on bass, Austin Traver on drums, and guest spots from Brenna Colangelo and Brian O’Meara.  Oh and it was recorded by Eddie Golden III and mixed/mastered by Ryan from Doom Beach, so yes, everyone you know has worked a little bit on this.  🙂


Ponybird – “Feel”

This wonderfully kaleidoscopic single comes with an announcement: new Ponybird EP coming in early 2022!  Jennifer Dauphinais just released WEAREBISON’s debut EP (we highly recommend!), but “Feel” is another feel, another vibe completely.  Ponybird get lightly psychedelic here, wrapping its music around lyrics that feel like a ritual incantation.  


Say What You Will – “Bargained For”

A month ago, we posted about Say What You Will (premium New Haven pop punk)’s new music video, “Bargained For”.  The band have now officially released that song on other streaming platforms, so you can add it to your daily commute / routine / prayers.


Was and When – “Be Something”

Every song by Was and When (Mike Held of Josie’s Ring and Snowpiler) is a ghost story.  I don’t mean to suggest there’s a ghoul in “Be Something”, the project’s new single (although that would be sick for Halloween), but rather that each Was and When song is haunted by the past.  “They say to live in the now // I’m tangled up in the memories.”  Stay tuned for W&W’s new EP, All We’ve Come To Know, in January 2022.


Music Videos:

Anxious – “In April”

Last week, we shared the great news that Anxious was picked up by the legendary Run For Cover Records.  This week, the band has released a music video for “In April”, their newest song.  Check it out below!


A Will Away – “Karma”

Be honest, A Will Away, you like making music videos as much as you like making music!  And hey, we’re cool with that, because we like your music videos as much as we like your music, which is to say “dearly”.


Labara – “Goes On”

This Halloween season, Labara dropped their now-traditional October EP.  “Goes On”, one of our favorite tracks from 4 Specters just got a music video to celebrate the occasion.  As the EP warns though, extended exposure to this music may cause “psychic transmissions, unwanted paranormal visitation, or corrosive brain damage”.  Worth it.


Was and When – “Be Something”

The video for Was & When’s newest song!  (See above).  🙂


Waveform – “Favorite Song”

Oh damn, Waveform* signed a deal with Run For Cover Records too?!  The label will be re-releasing Last Room on vinyl in January, and they’ve made this music video to celebrate the occasion.  What’s the video about?  It’s about the horrors of moving to NYC and having to move your mattress (and trying to avoid people peeing on it).


Kicker Pictures – Velvet Street

We had to include Kicker Pictures’ short film Velvet Street here.  Firstly, it’s scored with “Crisis Shopper” by the Tines.  Secondly, Matt Valade and Connor Rog (the director and DP) not only make music videos for other bands, but they also play in their own band Bajzelle  (Rog is in Luke Ellingson’s live band).  ANDDD Alex McGuire from Youth XL is an actor in it (he’s a great actor too, who’d have known?).  Velvet Street is a load of fun, and features the only audio recordings of a kazoo on this entire list.  Give it a look!