Bronson Arm repeat themselves, The Clamps open wide, Escuela Grind do it to death, Folly Group get down, Marika Hackman goes big and The Vaccines are in the pink. Welcome to your plays of the week:
Bronson Arm
Bronson Arm
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bronson Arm are a noise-punk duo from Kalamazoo, MI. Featuring Blake Bickel on baritone guitar/vocals and Garrett Yates on drums, they deliver a stripped-down and percussive dissonance that refuses to be ignored. Exploring dark rhythmic tensions and erratic mood shifts in an anxiety laden landscape, Bronson Arm’s quickly evolving body of work effortlessly meanders from slow burning dirges to spasmodic jolting bangers. As the band briefly dips their toes into elements of no wave, noise rock and punk, you might hear hints of artists like Metz, Sonic Youth, Fugazi and KARP.”
The Clamps
Megamouth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Megamouth is an album that reflects post-pandemic anger. Composed between 2021 and 2022 and recorded in mid-2023, Megamouth features 10 hard-charging tracks dripping with fat-fuzzy guitars, cheeky pumping basslines and furious drumming. Megamouth consolidates The Clamps’ well-recognizable high-adrenaline energetic sound squeezing rock ’n’ roll, stoner and speedrock into a solid track list that will make you jump on a car, turn the volume up and push the damn gas like a mothefucking drag racer from the ’70s. Then you stop at a gasoline station, hail to Lemmy, share a couple of pints with Hellacopters and tell Fu Manchu to pay the bill !!”
Escuela Grind
Ddeeaatthhmmeettaall
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is the band’s third genre-based EP installment, tackling their take on death metal, one of the most important and influential metal subgenres for each of the members. This four-song collection showcases their immediate songwriting growth from 2022’s full-length album Memory Theater; sounding furiously dialed-in and refusing to be held back by genre limitations. Escuela Grind are one of our most explosive live acts and has been quite successful with winning crowds across various subgenres of metal — this is a band that accounts need to get out and see to fully experience.”
Folly Group
Down There!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Drawing from post-punk, dub, hip-hop, electronic dance music and traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms, Folly Group have established themselves amongst U.K. experimental rock’s new leading lights Marrying open-hearted lyricism with furiously inventive self-production, this bracing, complex record lends a genuinely original voice to a familiar theme: Alienation in modern Britain.”
Marika Hackman
Big Sigh
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Big Sigh brings together the best of Marika Hackman’s previous works as an indie musician and adds a new layer of epic sounds and full-bodied production. Big Sigh is the “hardest record” Marika has ever made. As the title suggest, it is a relief of sorts — of sadness, of stress and lust, but mostly relief. Co-produced with Sam Petts Davies (Frank Ocean, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Wolf Alice, London Grammar). Lyrically there’s always romance alongside grief, with elements of vulnerability and feeling trapped. “This album took a long time to make. It was not easy, and by the time I got to the end of it I was quiet. I wanted to be away from it and let it sit in its own space. Now the dust has settled and I’ve got re-enter the world of Big Sigh, and I’m excited. Stepping into a new world, moving forward, chipping away. Breathe in, breathe out. Big sigh.”
The Vaccines
Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Torchbearers for British guitar music, The Vaccines — Justin Young (lead vocals, guitars), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Timothy Lanham (guitars, keys, vocals) and Yoann Intonti (drums) — are back with their sixth studio album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. The title comes from a misheard lyric from Don McLean’s American Pie, a song that for Young fittingly evokes the death of innocence and the American Dream. After he moved to Los Angeles — a city the band has grown up being captivated by — he was forced to wrestle with the disillusionment that comes when expectations, dreams, and reality don’t quite meet. Yet, though Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an album about reconciling with loss, it’s also filled with gratitude for the people and places we once loved. “Pink carnations symbolise gratitude and tell a person they’ll never be forgotten,” says Young. “So whether it’s the loss of a lover, or a friend, or even just a dream, the record is a reminder that they’ll live on in whatever capacity the mind allows them to. And it’s a reminder to keep on dreaming.”
