Notable Releases of the Week (6/2)

Memorial Day is behind us, and summer is unofficially here! How did you spend your long weekend? I was at Atlantic City’s new emo/punk-friendly beach festival Adjacent Fest, and you can check out pics and my reviews here. And speaking of punk and emo, we ran down the best punk, emo, and hardcore songs of May this week too. It may have been a shorter week, but it’s not light on new music. I highlight seven new albums below, and Bill tackles more in Indie Basement, including Protomartyr, Baxter Dury, Jake Shears, RVG, Juan Wauters, Lanterns on the Lake, Beach Fossils, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

On top of those, this week’s honorable mentions include Rufus Wainwright (folk covers with David Byrne, AHOHNI, Van Dyke Parks, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Andrew Bird & more), WITCH, Lost Under Heaven, Moneybagg Yo, Toosii, Louise Post (Veruca Salt), Carlos Dengler (ex-Interpol), Cowboy Junkies, Thantifaxath, Ben Folds, Ben Harper, Bongzilla, Tanya Tucker, Speakers Corner Quartet, Anthony Naples, Cowboys in the Campfire (Tommy Stinson), Avenged Sevenfold, Ashnikko, McKinley Dixon, Brandt Brauer Frick, Factor Chandelier, The Stools, The Hard-Ons, Sorry Girls, Generationals, World I Hate, Don’t Sleep, Gringo Star, Legend Yae, Body Type, Blemish, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Laraaji & Kramer, Purr, OLTH, Knower, The Saxophones, The Aces, Kenny Rogers, The Revivalists, Sneakpeek, Metro Boomin’s Spider-Man soundtrack, the American Nightmare EP, the Joan Jett & the Blackhearts EP, the corook EP, the Surprise Chef EP, the Damim EP, the Termanology EP, the Worn/C4 split, and the Bob Dylan live album.

Read on for my picks. What’s your favorite release of the week?

Pupil Slicer – Blossom
Prosthetic

There are a lot of ways to follow a great debut album, and for UK band Pupil Slicer–who released one of the best mathcore debuts in recent memory with 2021’s Mirrors–they’ve chosen to almost entirely reinvent themselves. Their sophomore LP Blossom still harnesses the aggressive chaos that made their debut so remarkable, but, to quote singer/guitarist Kate Davies, the goal on LP2 was “to further break down the walls between metal, hardcore, shoegaze, electronic music and pop” and that’s exactly what Pupil Slicer have done. Kate goes from piercing screams to soaring, androgynous clean vocals in a way that sounds damn near effortless. The music goes from bone-crushingly heavy to clean and delicate, from accessible ear candy to deeply experimental. It’s an album that defies easy categorization, it builds a bridge between Converge and Kate Bush and even that twisting, turning path is full of unpredictable thrills.

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Buggin – Concrete Cowboys
Flatspot

Over the course of a demo, an EP, a few other tracks/singles, and some rowdy live shows, Chicago’s Buggin (fka Buggin Out) have been leaving their mark on the current hardcore scene, and now they follow all of that up with their first full-length album, Concrete Cowboys. It’s a 12-song LP that makes good on the promise of the band’s early material and really lets you know what Buggin is all about. Vocalist Bryanna Bennett flips a middle finger to fakes, entitled assholes, people who live on the internet, and people who tokenize non-men in hardcore, and they also revel in the thrill of a hardcore show and dedicate an entire song to getting snacks and sodas at the bodega. The instrumentals follow suit, with a backdrop that’s as fun as it is aggressive. They swerve between fast-paced punk and groove-based hardcore, and they flirt with some catchier stuff too, like the clean backing vocals on “Youth” and the skate punk riffs on “Redacted.” But for the most part, the songs are impactful just because Buggin have a firm grasp on hardcore as an art form, not because they’re trying to please anyone other than themselves.

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Foo Fighters – But Here We Are
Roswell/RCA

Tragedy is an inevitable part of life, and some people are very good at taking tragedy and turning it into great art. Dave Grohl is one of those people. He wrote the band’s breakout debut album as a way to cope with the death of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, and almost three decades later, he wrote But Here We Are while coping with the sudden death of another bandmate, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, as well as his mother Virginia. And like he did in the mid ’90s, he turned these tragedies into genuinely impactful music. Much of the album stylistically returns to the Sugar and Hüsker Dü influences that informed the Foo Fighters’ classic ’90s albums, and Dave has the urgency he had when the Foo Fighters were a new band as well. He also drums on it, and–with all the respect in the world for Taylor Hawkins–this record reminds you that Dave is and has always been such a special, creative drummer. But Here We Are also makes some surprising left turns; they effectively explore shoegaze/dream pop territory on “Show Me How,” which has harmonies sung by Dave’s daughter Violet, and the record has an epic 10-minute track called “The Teacher” that really earns its lengthy runtime.

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Bully – Lucky For You
Sub Pop

The Foo Fighters album might be the most high profile alt-rock album out this week, but the Bully album deserves attention from alt-rock fans too. It’s out on Nirvana’s former label Sub Pop, and it’s some of the most purely fun, catchy ’90s-style rock I’ve heard all year. Made primarily by main member Alicia Bognanno and producer J.T. Daly, Alicia does what she’s done best since Bully’s instantly-buzzed-about self-titled debut EP came out 10 years ago. Like Kurt’s was, Alicia’s version of grunge is rooted in gritty punk and sugary indie pop, more Pixies and PJ Harvey and less yarler rock. Sometimes she very much wears her ’90s influences on her sleeve (it’s hard to listen to “Days Move Slow” and not at least kinda think of “Closing Time”), but even those overly familiar moments feel fresh once Alicia puts her unique spin on things.

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Rancid – Tomorrow Never Comes
Epitaph/Hellcat

Rancid have toyed with a few different things over the years, from singing about echoes of reggae to making actual reggae, from getting MTV-friendly to making full-on ’80s-style hardcore. But for their last few records, they’ve been taking a page out of the Bad Religon/Ramones playbook and just making no-frills punk records that stick to a distinct, time-tested sound and feel newly fresh each time. Tomorrow Never Comes is classic street punk Rancid from start to finish, with songs that could be added to records like Let’s Go and …And Out Come the Wolves without anyone batting an eye. There’s nothing unpredictable on here, but there’s also no other band around that does what Rancid does better than they do. It’s been 30 years since their debut LP, and they’ve still got the ability to churn out rippin’, anthemic punk songs that are as fun to listen to as the classics. Especially in a youth-oriented genre like this one, no small feat.

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Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – Wicca Phase Springs Eternal
Run For Cover

An artist releasing a self-titled album a decade into their career usually signifies some type of reinvention, and that’s exactly the feeling I get from the new self-titled album by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, the solo project of Adam McIlwee, who co-founded and formerly co-fronted Tigers Jaw and later co-founded GothBoiClique, the collective that once also counted Lil Peep as a member. Like Peep, Wicca Phase is considered one of the pioneers of emo-trap, but over time, Adam began incorporating other styles of music into the project as well. And on this new self-titled album, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal can’t be pinned down to any specific subgenre of music. It just feels like Adam’s outlet for any and all of his ideas. Made in collaboration with longtime collaborator Darcy Baylis and Uniform’s Ben Greenberg, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal ranges from driving post-punk and new wave to sputtering electronics and house beats to tender folk and slowcore. On one of its quietest acoustic songs, Adam sings a gorgeous duet with Zola Jesus. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal covers a lot of new ground for Adam, but his unmistakable voice gives it the same moody, melancholic tone that’s been his trademark since the Tigers Jaw days. It’s a great mix of familiar and unfamiliar territory, and it just might be Wicca Phase’s most expansive and cohesive album to date.

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Spy – Satisfaction
Triple B Records

Buggin aren’t the only rising hardcore band with an anticipated debut LP out today. Bay Area band Spy (who share drummer Cole Gilbert with Scowl) follow up two buzzed-about EPs and a split with Maniac with their first full-length, Satisfaction, on Triple B Records. The label’s description calls it “10 brand new tracks of fast, gross hardcore punk,” and that’s kind of all you need to know. If you like your hardcore fast, scuzzy, and without any bells or whistles, look no further.

Pick up the Spy LP on limited-to-250 color vinyl.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Protomartyr, Baxter Dury, Jake Shears, RVG, Juan Wauters, Lanterns on the Lake, Beach Fossils, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Drain.