OK so we’re a little late on this one. We usually publish our weekly music round-ups on Wednesdays, but it’s been a particularly hectic week, so here we are: hat in hand on a very early Friday morning, asking you to check out these sick bands. But wait, it’s not just any Friday! It’s Bandcamp Friday, which means that the money you spend on Bandcamp today goes further than it usually does. You’ll note that many of these embedded tracks link to the artists’ bandcamp pages. Kick them a few dollars today to let them know that their art has value to you. Or, if you can’t do that, see if you can find someone who can right now! 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 stunning new album from Sargasso, As It Surfaces to Meet Me, the new third album from Passing Strange, Afterthought, and Punchlove’s dreamy double-single “Solstice // Ghost”.
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:
Burning Hand – Burning Hand
The debut EP / demo from this hardcore duo (Matt Skrzypiec and Josh Gronbach). Even though this is hardcore, it clearly brushes up against stoner metal too – these riffs are thick and fuzzy as fuck. It rules. Recorded and engineered by cutie Ryan Prushinski from Doom Beach. Favorite track: “No Integrity”.
Live Slower – The Delicate Rhythm of Bleeding Stars
I guess when Drew Collins isn’t busy with Pulsr and Sundots, he’s making beautifully expansive ambient music. I think this might be the project’s first full album, compiled of tracks made in the past few years. Imagine if the stars slowly fell from the sky, and when they touched your face you found that they felt like snow.
Passing Strange – Afterthought
Here’s an album that’ll show up in our “Favorites of the Year” in December. A beautifully melancholic album with rich lyrics, solid melodic hooks, and a unique texture. In a recent interview, the duo said that the album was difficult to write over quarantine, but you’d never guess it given how easily things songs flow. Favorite track: “Karen in the Daytime”.
Sargasso – As It Surfaces to Meet Me
What a record! We’re swooning for this thing. Each track feels like a piece of short fiction, and by the track’s end, I want to know more and to explore that world a little further. It feels like the band took a bunch of pop songs and filled them with perfect, non-obvious choices. Immediately great but rewards repeat listens. We’ll be posting a longer-form post on As It Surfaces To Meet Me soon. Favorite track: “Bis”
Wearebison – Wearebison
This debut EP perfectly strikes an impossible balance: it’s satirical, but the joke is never on the audience. It’s rich with themes, but it is also immediate. It appeals to both our deep lizard brain and higher cortices. Fun, smart, catchy goth electronica. Made by Jennifer Dauphinois of Ponybird and Rory Thomas Derwin. Check out this great review from MyEmuIsEmo. Favorite track: “Lion’s Jaw”
Singles:
7Elevan – “A Little More”
Pop-punk and alternative rock artist 7Elevan debuts with “A Little More”, a song named after how much you like the song each time you listen to it. 🙂 Seriously though, give this one a try — from the creator of the PopRocks Music radio / podcast series!
Drew Angus – “My Place”
This chill pop song goes down so smoothly! The song is a single from an upcoming debut album that’ll be out early next year. About the song, Angus explains: “It depicts themes of heartbreak and change, with Americana references/road trip vibes. In short, it’s a song about moving on from past memories.”
Driveway Ceiling – “Horns n Pigs”
Damn, they’re 3-for-3. Driveway Ceiling’s third track is just as good, if not better, than the previous two. Genre-less in a cool, liberating way. This song feels like staying up so late your eyes start to sting, but you’re laughing too hard to even feel sleepy.
Inertial – “Violet”
You may have to wait until November 5 to hear the new Inertial record in full, but for now, you’ve got “Violet”, a new single from the one-man-band. Imagine standing on the side of a cliff and unexpectedly feeling the spray of the ocean.
Jillian Caillouette – “Kill the Critic”
“Can you come back home to love?” is the refrain here, as Caillouette essentially asks us to kill our inner critics. And as much as they might sound super heavy, the song is delightful and begs you to sing along with it at the top of your lungs in your car. Produced by Asher Condit of Kingship Recordings.
Peasant – “Sam Sheriff”
So I guess Peasant is spelled with two of those little umalut things, but I don’t know how to make those on my keyboard, so you just gotta be on the lookout for that if you search for this band on spotify. This band is fronted by Frederic Anthony, and if you heard his recent (and excellent) solo songs, you might know what you’re in for. Protopunk from New Haven! The chorus reminds you “I’m not happy”, but that feels hard to believe given how much fun this song feels to hear. Surely the song title is in no way a reference to Sans Serif Recordings.
Punchlove – “Solstice // Ghost”
Okay I checked with twitter, asking for the term of two singles that are released together, and someone wisely said that this would be called a double. Punchlove’s surprise double is a gloriously warm pair of tunes. They feel like you’re laying on the roof of your house with your eyes closed on a cool autumn morning (it’s still just a little wet up there), and you slowly feel the sun rise by the growing warmth.
Rosemary Minkler – “Cat & Mouse”
Waterbury’s Rosemary Minkler just released an EP in June (you’ve listened to it, right??), so the new
“Cat & Mouse” is such a welcome surprise! This one is an instrumental, featuring Minkler’s playfully gorgeous keys. An exciting balance of indie pop and jazz. “Cat & Mouse” feels like being in a French New Wave movie.
Skeleton Yaks – “Say Goodbye (to Rendered Water)”
Hell yes! Jake Gagne is back with new music and new project name. We last covered his work as Won Ton Death, and now he gets to be “the artist formerly known as Won Ton Death” which sounds fucking rad. Anyways, his debut album as Skeleton Yaks will be out on October 10: Cruelty of Yaks. And if these two preview tracks are any indication, it’ll be amazing, weird, and glitched to hell and back. All revenue raised from the record will go to the New Haven Housing Fund.
T!LT – “Questions”
I think the last time I wrote about New Haven’s T!LT, I said that their music feels like the nighttime. You could be in broad daylight listening to T!LT, but you feel like your vibing in an awesome neon basement with a pool table. Fucking swanky pop music.
TIP – “Dave”
Two new songs from TIP (who we interviewed last year!), and they always bring the big choruses. A little touch of 00’s indie, a sprinkling of grunge, and a heap of hard rock. Don’t forget to catch their B-side “Ellipses”, as the two songs perfectly complement one another.
Music Videos:
Arms Like Roses – Live Set at Deadmoon Audio
The good folks at Moobly Krew put together this intimate live set with Arms Like Roses (and another CT artist later in this post). The band go semi-acoustic here, and they sound so warm! They preview some new sounds from their upcoming debut LP, so this is a must-watch. What a busy year for the band! Two EPs in 2021: <i>Get Some Sleep</i> and <i>Past Midnight</i>, this live set, and now they’re now recording that debut record at Silver Bullet Studios.
DC Wolves – “No Alarm”
This song comes from DC Wolves’ 2021 EP, Nighthawk, and the band is preparing to release a new full-length record at the end of the year. DC Wolves is the project of Dan Cahill, and he explains in a press release that: “‘No Alarm’ was originally conceptualized as a commentary on the apathy towards the right to vote, but when we started work on the video, we quickly realized that the song’s message had evolved and expanded.” The video looks sick (please don’t mistake that for a pun!), and I’ve had the chorus stuck in my head for a couple of hours now.
Evelyn Gray – Live Set at Deadmoon Audio
And we’re back at Deadmoon! Evelyn Gray recently played their last show for a while at Volume Two because they’ll be hitting the road with Hits Like A Girl(!) soon. Incredible musicianship meets raw emotional intensity. How good is the set? I literally accidentally clapped at the end of a song while I was watching the set at home, lmao.
Jillian Caillouette – “Kill the Critic”
We wrote about Jillian’s song above! Check out the video for the song.
Kevin MF King – “Slow Glass”
The video is like if Ingmar Bergman got drunk as hell in 2021 and had a great time (instead of just being tormented by the somber uncaring gaze of god). Imagine if you were wearing a very itchy sweater while at a great party with your best friends in a very brightly lit room with mirrors. It’s restless, fun, and a little worn around the edges.
Say What You Will – “Bargained For”
Earlier this year, Say What You Will released a split with Raised by Wolves, and since then they’ve released two new singles. Their latest, “Bargained For”, might be my favorite of theirs! But who am I kidding, whichever SWYW song that’s currently playing is my favorite. Shot by Joey Genovese in what appears to be the fragments of a half-remembered dream.
