Friday, December 16, 2011

New song by Cheap Girls

Everyone’s favorite apathetic rock trio, Cheap Girls, has a new album slated for release on February 21st of 2012. The album is called “Giant Orange” and is the first assurance that 2012 is going to be filled with good music. They just released the track, Ruby, from the album, which you can listen to below:


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Song of the Week: Black Cobra – Omniscient

Since this week marked the release of the Black Key’s new album, I was hoping that one of those songs would excite me enough to end up as my song of the week. And while the album is not bad, I think it sacrificed nuance and subtlety for catchiness. But, that is a topic for another time. The Song of the Week is from another two-piece band, which even have “Black” in their title! Black Cobra is a metal band from San Francisco, California that plays an abrasive and sludgy form of metal that borrows heavily from hardcore punk (mainly in the form of the shouted vocals). While most “sludge” metal is slow and plodding, Black Cobra’s music tears along at an extremely fast tempo, as if they decided to take only the fast parts from the genre that their music occupies.

They just released their 4th album, Invernal, through Southern Lord, but the song I have for you today is from their 1st album, Bestial. The vocals on Bestial have a murkier and grainer sound than that of their new album, and I think that lack of refinement makes it sound all the better.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Two new songs by The National

I can say without hesitation that The National is my favorite band to come out of the indie rock scene in the last couple years (they have been playing since 1999, but the last few years has seen them expand in popularity greatly). Any time they put out new music is a cause for excitement. Recently, they performed two new songs at CBC Radio’s “Q” show. The songs, "Rylan" and "I Need My Girl,” are on the quiet and restrained side, but are still fantastic. I can only hope that they have a new album in the works.

Listen to them here.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Song of the Week: Get Rad – Fuck Off Death

Much to the surprise of everyone, myself included, just a week after my last post, I have another one! Who knows, maybe this means I will be posting a song on a more weekly basis (as Song of the Week implies). But enough of that, today I have a song for you by a hardcore punk band from the Milwaukee, WI called Get Rad. What first attracted me to Get Rad was the awesome cover art for their album I Can Always Live, which is a parody of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

And after looking at some of the song titles on the album, like “Bullshit Forcefield”, and “Fuck Off Death,” I was pretty certain I was in for a good time. Get Rad play an aggressive yet energetic style of hardcore punk that is more about having fun than being nihilistic and angry (a lot of hardcore punk these days takes itself far too seriously). I recommend that you give the song Fuck Off Death a listen. I think you will enjoy it.

You can stream the entire album from their bandcamp page, and if you are so inclined, buy the mp3s at whatever price you see fit.