Loving this Kestrels song this afternoon. That is all. Happy Monday.
Category: Tracks
Weakened Friends: “Blue Again”
What an exceptionally good band. I’m so excited to have found them tonight.
Ogikubo Station: “Take a Piece of All That’s Good”
Here’s a little piece of happiness to carry you through the Sunday night doldrums: Ogikubo Station’s “Take a Piece of All That’s Good” from the band’s upcoming album We Can Pretend Like.
Stogie T ft. Mike Classic: Honey and Pain
Thrice-“Black Honey”
YES
A haunting song from a band who continues to grow and stay relevant. New album To Be Everywhere is To Be Nowhere out next Friday.
Kaytranada — “Drive Me Crazy” feat. Vic Mensa
This music reminds me that we are all living in the future.
This track and others have been out for awhile, but Kaytranada finally dropped the whole very, very good album, 99.9%, on XL last week.
I don’t believe in hyperbole. This is an exceptional album. The bass line at the beginning of “Weight Off” alone is well worth your time and money.
Birds in Row — “Weary”
As hardcore withdraws back into thousands of local fastnesses to rethink and regroup, decent national releases like this one are rare. European bands have been holding down the scene’s bona fides for some time now, though—tough-guy mistranslations like pretty much anything in the Hardcore Worldwide video catalogue aside—and France’s Birds in Row is a prime example of post-hardcore’s lingering impact on the vast frontiers of the heavy music world. The band’s 2012 release You, Me, and the Violence was top-to-bottom quality. Personal War (October 30, Deathwish Inc.) promises more of the same.
“Weary” is a tantalizing taste of the forthcoming album. Watch below, pre-order above.
Machinist! — “Balance”
Another solid Eulogy release. For the OGs.
Leon Bridges, “Coming Home”
This spellbinding track from Leon Bridges’ forthcoming album of the same name evokes an earlier era without feeling merely retro or wholly derivative.
It’s a shame this cut didn’t make it onto Oxford American’s Annual Music Issue sampler, which highlighted music from Texas. The Forth Worth native’s masterful reimagination of the early years of R&B showcases the renewed sophistication of southern music without succumbing to the temptation of kitsch.
Looking forward to the LP later this month.
Common War, “Like a Violin”
This is the first single from Common War’s brilliant debut LP, The Search. Eulogy has not done nearly enough to promote this release, so Common War is flying pretty low under the radar. If I had more to say about melodic hardcore right now I would give the album a full review, but the CD is well worth 9 bucks at the band’s merch store or a full stream on Spotify.
Melodic hardcore is a bit like a warm, nostalgic blanket right now: I can put it on and go back to the early 2000s any time I want. Common War is doing their part to move the genre forward from Southern California, but they’re straining against inertia on a global scale as hardcore bands in Europe and Asia work through the ideas of some of the past decade’s most successful bands.
A good, solid release.
Buy the album (and other merch) here.
Common War on Facebook.
C.B. Crenshaw 