New Music Friday

I've seen a lot of new bands over the past six months or so, and here's a post to discuss.  

Hop Along​

This band was playing at a showcase I was at in the fall.  Their song "Waitress" - which they played at the show -- is so abrasive that I kind of hated when it came on my iTunes mix but now I love it, I can't get enough of the shouting, and I think everyone should listen at least a dozen times before forming an opinion, at least as long as the first impression is negative.  Long story short, they are from Philly and here's a little blurb from their Bandcamp page: Hop Along is Frances Quinlan, Mark Quinlan, Tyler Long, and Joe Reinhart who all went to rural suburban high schools (except for Joe, who went to a suburban suburban high school). Eventually they moved to Philly and started playing music together. 

Get Disowned is their first full-length release. It was made piece by piece, over the course of two years, at Headroom Studios in North Philadelphia.  Buy it here. 

"I just wish you and your friends would leave"
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Car Seat Headrest
I haven't seen this band live yet and while their latest came out in 2015, unlike Hop Along it wasn't their first release, so I guess I'm just late to the CSH train, but the song I fell in love with -- and these days, music has become so much more song-based rather than "album" based, but that's a topic for another post, the point is... "Something Soon" blows me away as much or more than "Waitress" -- and at first it's just as grating and maybe a tough listen but I think I fell in love at once.  If you like screaming and need to be screaming, take a nice listen to "Something Soon."
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​HEAVY BOOTS ON MY THROAT, I NEED, I NEED SOMETHING SOON, I NEED SOMETHING SOON
I CAN'T TALK TO MY FOLKS, I NEED, I NEED SOMETHING SOON, I NEED SOMETHING SOON.

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Day Wave
I've gone on and on about Day Wave since I first discovered them via Sirius XMU while in Manhattan Beach, CA, last September (as my boyfriend can attest) and they have without doubt a quintessential California sound.  "They" are from Oakland (it's really just a single dude - Jackson Philips) and have only released a series of EPs so far, all since 2015, but their output is amazing (it seems like every day I get a new track in my iTunes, including Friday when their Hard to Read EP was released).  So far nothing has quite hit me like "Drag" (a top 10 Vague Space track of 2015) but almost every song eventually winds its way to the top of my weekly listening -- "Come Home Now", "Total Zombie", "Nothing at All" and newer tracks "Gone" and "Stuck".  Please please please check it out -- no screaming in this band's music I promise.  Just laid back surf tracks for a cool California day.
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I should come down now and get out of my head.
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She said "Darling, come home now, 'cause you've been away too long."
Said "Hey now, I've been right here, but somehow I know I'm wrong."

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Cosmicide
​ Brandon Curtis, late of Secret Machines, has a new band that doesn't have a official album out yet, I don't believe, but I got to see them play a full set last week at Pianos in NYC, where they have been on a month long residency.  I'd been hearing good things and I'll admit I was impressed, particularly since I didn't really know Secret Machines.  Their cover of "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned" was pretty amazing, with Secret Machines drummer subbing in for the new Cosmicide "band" (which I think consisted of two members from other bands playing that night).  Anyway I can't wait to hear what Curtis has in store here.
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Operators
​ So this blog has been back for roughly 3 months now, and as I feared, my posts are becoming more and more sporadic -- I just don't have the time these days (or the energy) to put into the blog like I used to, even a couple years ago, but I am committed to trying to get it going again and I'm flush with new ideas for posts all the time, I just... never get around to posting.  Anyway, the book publishing plan is going... along, we had a bite supposedly but I haven't heard anything in a couple weeks on that but I'm still hopeful, it's a long process, and I'm about 3/4 of the way through my follow-up novel, or what I hope will be a follow-up novel, if this one gets picked up soon.  But anyway, this is a long way of me saying I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T POST THAT WOLF PARADE IS GETTING BACK TOGETHER!!!!!

So yeah that probably needs a 1000 word post of its own -- a series of sold-out shows in Toronto, New York, and (LA? not sure) -- and they sold out all 5 NY shows in milliseconds *fucking scalpers* but I'm sure I'm going to go, no matter the price (right now they're hovering around $80+ on StubHub so I'm waiting until it gets closer).  Anyway, supposedly there's new music and hopefully there might be more than just this brief reunion tour but for now, just having Spencer and Dan back together is heaven.  

Speaking of Dan, his latest band (this one without any Spoon influence) is Operators and they have a new track and a new album coming out.  This track is very vintage Dan, Handsome Furs-era good, and I can't wait for the next few months from these guys.  You have both (Dan and Spencer) been missed, very very missed.