Quick Spins takes a quick look at recently released albums to make certain you're listening to all the quality music being released these days. And with today being Bandcamp Friday, I'm hoping some of the words below will spur you to actually listen to and then pick up these fine local releases today while all the dough goes directly to the artists!
Whaddaya get when you mix Naked Raygun, The Methadones, and Blood People in a musical blender? Well, if you fed all three into a blender the sounds would be pretty awful, huh? So, while Violets is built by members of all 3 of those bands, the noise that Bill Stephens, Fritz Dorez, Simon Lamb, Mike Soucy and Aly Jados is unique to this quintet.
When I listen to the first EP from Violets the music sounds inevitable, always-churning but moving inexorably forward, leaving you awash in a blanket of hooks and rhythms that hold you fast while Jados' vocals take on the form of a primal blast, gluing you in their trap and only granting release as the last note fades away.
For a band with this pedigree, the music is as heavy as one might expect, but the tempo is more groove than aggression, and the music is more melodic than angry, though the entire sonic package is pleasantly aggressive. Don't pick up this album because it's made by a "supergroup," pick it up because it's really good.
Violets by Violets
Chicago Musial duo OK Cool plays a particular vein of poppy indie rock that wobbles its way right into your heart on their full-length debut Chit Chat. Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller's songs are simple but take unexpected lurches and turns, and by album's end I found myself preemptively humming along with songs as they unwound in my ears. They've expanded their sonic terrain since their fawn EP came out in 2023, and with Chit Chat are poised to break out and reach a broader musical audience due to these advances. Weird yet accessible songs? Check! Universal lyrics largely related to relationships? Check! A debut with nary a misstep and not a single mediocre track? Check, check, check!
For those you dying for a RIYL in every review, OK Cool is very much in the Matador Records vein of things, making a lot of pretty noise that sticks in your brain like a good song should. There's also a new confidence in their delivery, equally matched with an exuberance that is nigh impossible to ward off. And why would you want to?
Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller recorded everything on Chit Chat but employ the talents of guitarist Tommy Kessler and drummer Josh Kayne to fill out their live performances. I know I'm now eager to catch one of their shows to see how this all plays out live, but I've got a good feeling OK Cool won't let me (or you) down.
Chit Chat by OK Cool
Perseverance Hotel
Danimal Farm
Created in the latter part of the pandemic, Danimal Farm's Perseverance Hotel is a deeply personal yet very political album. There are no rallying cries here though, the politics have seeped into the very core of the songs as the writer's frustration with navigating an uncertain world proves ever more difficult. But there's also a womb-like quality to a lot of the songs, looking deeply inward and pulling what I read as political outcry framed as the very personal. Keeping the more hypnotic aspect of his prior band Milk At Midnight, here Danimal Farm's sole recording member Danny Doom sharpens his focus and strips away the volume while building up finer layers of instrumentation to create each of these mini dramas. Doom's live band recently debuted and I was pleased to see the additional vibrance the songs gained, simultaneously channeled through multiple limbs and organs to achieve a deeper sonic impact.
While this album isn’t stuck in time, it does reflect the time when it was birthed, with the corrosive nature of the world encroaching on the music and twisting the artist's original intent. It feels like an expunging of the toxic influence of the world in the preceding years is working its way through every fiber of music as Doom attempts to turn it into something more beautiful, more palatable, something that makes more sense. For me, there is a definite clue that Perseverance Hotel did not end up as it was originally intended, as you uncover a note connected to the final instrumental title track reading, "This was supposed to be an album of love songs."
And you know what? Maybe it is an album of love songs. It does capture the feeling of undeniable forward momentum into uncertain terrain, and what is love if not that?
Perseverance Hotel by Danimal Farm
With IRON, Chicago's Post Animal continues to refine their sound, and by that I mean the sound is generally more refined and particular, growing ever more sharply defined and precise. The band continues to look back through the decades, with IRON mining a more Cali-daisical sound. It's all warm breezes blowing over coastal highways and family room jams in Laurel Canyon in this place these days. Need an escape? Everything's cozy and cushiony in here!
IRON also marks the return of Joe Keery to the band after his brief absence as both acting and his musical project DJO pulled him away (on the off chance you were unaware, Keery spent plenty of time gigging around Chicago with Post Animal in earlier days…). I guess this makes for a nice hook to draw new listeners in, but it didn't noticeably impact the album. In some ways this is a lovely surprise, since it shows how these guys are first and foremost friends and musicians intent on blending their talents into truly collaborative artistic endeavors.
Perfect for either a summer day at the beach or a darkened headphone sesh at home, IRON might have a heavy title, but the music will lift and soothe you.
Iron by Post Animal