The Weather is a really underrated album. It's really great. Also saw Pond live last year and that was a really fun show and all them songs sounded great live
I'm sure you've just missed the fact the MOTHERFUCKING OVLOV HAVE A NEW ALBUM COMING OUT FRIDAY. This is enough to make this week objectively and officially not weak (at least musically)
I tried to do a top 15, and it's just so extremely hard to choose, so just highlighting some unforgivable omissions:
Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo (!!)
The Fix (!!!!)
Lotus
When We Escape
Electric Rainbow (an amazing Planet of Ice bonus track)
White Mystery
Ice Monster (extremely underrated in their discog)
The Game Needed Me
Fulfill the Dream
Dog Park
man this comment is extremely long but this has made me extremely emotional in a very fucking weird week. this band is so fucking important to me. love to see them getting love here
oof, man, this one really hurts. MTB was my favorite during all of highschool and a bit after that. I've listened to Highly Refined Pirates, Menos el Oso and Planet of Ice hundreds of times each, and Planet of Ice is a top 5 album of all time for me.
Being a 15 year old in the middle east, I remember sending my dad and family on hunts for Minus the Bear CD's whenever anyone went to Europe or the US on a trip, because I had to own physicals of each of their releases. I almost never saw anything by them in stores here, and was mostly greeted by confused faces whenever I asked (Shipping from the US is fucking expensive, guys. tho I did finally manage to find a Planet of Ice vinyl in a store here a few years ago, which made me insanely happy).
Minus the Bear has soundtracked an unmeasurable number of nights, friendships, loves and just generally some of the best moments of my life. They have been in a decline ever since OMNI, and I admit I barely listened to VOIDS (although it's really not that bad at all), but those first three albums (and of course the amazing Beer Commercials EP) are extremely important to me. without them I would've never heard of math rock, The Blood Brothers (through which I have heard of many of my favorite bands), Botch, These Arms Are Snakes and basically every single important band which shaped my musical taste into what it is today.
I'm going to fucking miss those guys, and I really hope they have at least a few EU dates so I can go see them for the first and last time.
You guys are going to be missed.
I've been super into them lately so this is good news, however I'm not really impressed by the single, nor did I think Cody was a very good album by their standards. I'd still go to bat for the S/T which is perfect
Other then my long ass comment above, and my (obvious) wait for Deafheaven, I'm really excited for the new Dirty Projectors. I still stand by the s/t from last year being really great (and in my top 10 of the year) and the two singles from the new one were fantastic too IMO, so I'm really waiting to see what Dave brings to this one (especially that one song with Robin Pecknold and Rostam, tbh)
I'm going to do this thing where I talk about local Israeli releases again, in hope anyone actually reads this comment and is interested enough in trying something that probably wouldn't get coverage anywhere else that they read. Let's go!
The two best new releases I've heard this week are local - both by bands where, full disclosure, I'm acquainted (at least partly) with a member, but my appreciation of their music is purely based on the music itself. Neither are very close friends and it's just a case where there's two phenomenal new releases out here I've been listening to constantly.
The first one is the second album by local emo-revival/post-hardcore outfit Bonjour Machines. They are pretty much the only emo act in Israel, and are made of 4 extremely talented 19-20 years olds, who released one nice (if derivative) twinkly-emo album some years ago before disbanding, just to come back again earlier this year and finally release their bombshell of an album. This one is in Hebrew; the album's named "Levad Be'Yachad La'Netzach" which translates to "Alone Together Forever". The whole album's in Hebrew, so the lyrics won't translate well, but that's not the main selling point of this album for me - it's just phenomenal, extremely well-written and well-produced post-hardcore/emo music, the sort of which I haven't heard in new releases in a while. The whole album just flows together so nice, the guitar work is phenomenal. I just can't recommend this album enough, and I'm really interested how non-Hebrew-speaking people will digest it.
You can find it at their Bandcamp (https://bonjourmachines.bandcamp.com/album/-) and also on Spotify.
The second release is the debut EP by Haifa's hardcore outfit Bygones (yes, they're aware of the Zach Hill project), "This Violent Delights Have Violent Ends". Honestly, had no expectations listening to this, as I've never heard/seen the band before, but this thing just blew me away. Extremely great hardcore/post-whatever music, six blazing, aggressive tracks in just under 10 minutes. Extremely recommended to Converge fans.
This release can only be found on the band's Bandcamp at the moment (https://bygoneshc.bandcamp.com/), but it's pay-what-you-want if anyone likes it enough.
Again, I was just completely blown away by both these releases, as I've never heard anything of the sorts happening locally before, and also mostly just because both are really fucking good. Hope anyone else enjoys these, and also hope we all have a great Deafheaven weekend! cheers
Jesus, thank you for this. I've said something to this extent a few years ago and I remember getting into a fight with someone in the commentariat over this opinion.
Maybe he's good at helping other people with their music, I don't know, but his own music really isn't very interesting at all and constantly feels like he's trying to imitate something that James Blake / Justin Vernon are already doing much better
I really hate the one with the Mariah Carey sample tho. It drags forever and it's not like otherwise this album has a nice quick flow to it. Just a slog on a slog
I only listened through once but I loved it. I like how Damon finally honed on a very specific vibe and just went with it for the whole album, it's sounding great musically and I love having all these Damon vocals after barely hearing him at all on Humanz
I'm extremely into the debut from BBNG's keyboardist, Matty - Dejavu.
Not the best artist name to go by, but his album is amazing. Look the song "I'll Gladly Place Myself Below You" up, it's quickly becoming my SOTY, it has me in tears on every single listen
Though I'm sad to admit that this song is probably going to appear on a lot of white girls' Instagram birthday stories. Which is why it was probably concieved.
Jesus fucking Christ that song is awful. Most of the album is just whatever but that one is just insulting. Proof that this album had no editing applied to it whatsoever
This is heaps better than Humanz. where that album was all around the place with almost nothing holding it together, this one is extremely consistent, one vision carried out the whole way, very strong on the vibes. I like this a lot! There are some real glowing songs on here, Souk Eyes really stood out to me. Happy to be excited about a Gorillaz album again
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