And here come some new tunes to brighten up your Monday. This week’s picks come from:
- Landlady
- Crocodiles
- Allison Crutchfield
- Kevin Devine
- Planes Mistaken For Stars
- Avers
- O’Brother
- Queen
- Cloud Nothings
Today we also welcome Joshua Peacock back to the cast of hissing lawns contributors.
Landlady
Brooklyn, NY
“Electric Abdomen” and “Driving in California”
Landlady will release their 2nd full length album, The World Is A Loud Place, on January 16th, 2017. The New York based art-rockers dropped two preview tracks last week as a great tease. If you’re a fan of quirky, art pop bands like of Montreal, give these guys a spin. They’re gloriously fun. – Kayne
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Crocodiles
San Diego, CA
Dreamless
Crocodiles are back with their 6th studio album in as many years. The prolific (is it glam, is it pop, is it punk?) duo cut a more sweeping sonic swath on this record, trading grungy guitars for more piano and synths but the result is no less grand. – Kayne
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Allison Crutchfield
Philadelphia, PA
“Dean’s Room”
Pitchfork announced today that Allison Crutchfield (twin sister of Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee) will release her debut solo album, Tourist In This Town, on Merge Records January 27th, 2017. The video for lead track “Dean’s Room” has me longing for more. It’s a full on rush of a song with clever wordplay and, oh my, that percussion is just killer.- Kayne
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Kevin Devine
Brooklyn, New York
Instigator
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Planes Mistaken For Stars
Denver, Colorado
Prey
A decade after their last album (2006’s “Mercy”), Planes Mistaken For Stars laid down 10 new tracks of badass, post-hardcore punk. “Prey” contains all the raw materials of the band’s first three albums; the glorious foundation of unfettered, punch-in-the-gut rock they perfected in the late 90s, early 2000s. It’s quite a feat to deliver such a stellar album of new music a decade after not writing anything new, and only playing a handful of live shows here and there during that time. “Prey” concretes a sound the foursome solidified a long time ago and hopefully marks the beginning of a new era of fresh music from the band. — Joshua
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Avers
Richmond, Va.
“Santa Anna” official video shot at Bristol Rhythm & Roots
Super new video for this catchy, fuzzy, twangy, rollicking track off Avers’ excellent 2016 album Omega/Whatever, which we’ve previously featured here for New Music Monday. – bill
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O’Brother
ATL, GA
“Silence” self released Portishead cover
O’Brother was more than a little great last month at Ghost Alley Music Festival with their heady, heavy, textural rock, and when I saw Portishead a few years ago, it was just short of life changing. At the time I probably would have argued that no one should ever attempt to cover Portishead, but O’Brother has a grasp of atmospherics that really makes this work. Heavy post rock band covering a trip hop classic shouldn’t work, but I really, really like this. – Tom
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Queen
London
“We Will Rock You (Fast)” from Queen On Air – The Complete BBC Radio Sessions due November 4 on Virgin EMI North America
I pretty much avoid classic rock due to overexposure, but when a flat out great band releases a radically different version of a signature song that rocks harder than the original, it’s hard not to be impressed. Yeah, this is all over the internet right now, but it’s totally worth checking out. – Tom
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Cloud Nothings
Cleveland, OH
Modern Act from Life Without Sound out Jan. 27 on Carpark Records.
The edges on this one seem a little smooth compared to, say, songs off Attack On Memory, perhaps headed more toward the sound of Spoon or Death Cab than the Wavves/Thee Oh Sees vibe that I usually get from them. Turns out Dylan Baldi can really sing. I dig it. – Tom