It’s Aislinn again, the Assistant Music Director here at WHUS. Nice to be back bringing some more interesting new releases. We’ve got Tacocat – NVM, a fun surfy garage rock band. Their song “Crimson Wave” is a girl anthem of sorts… And we have the solo project from the lead of Thee Oh Sees (John Dwyer) called Damaged Bug. Check it out – and more – below!
New Added Releases:
** = Push
* = Recommend
| ARTIST | ALBUM | DESCRIPTION | LABEL |
| Habibi* | Habibi | 60’s girl group garage rock. Cool harmonies and riffs throughout. RIYL: Vivian Girls, The Drums Try #2,3,5,8,10 FCC #9 | Burger Records |
| Sultan Bathery* | Sultan Bathery | Groovy garage rock, punk 60’s esque. RIYL: Black Lips, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees. Try #1,4,5,9 | Slovenly Recordings |
| Tacocat* | NVM | Short, fun, surfy garage rock. Benefits from non-aggressive and pleasant vox. Lyrics are weird, but that’s pretty good in this case. Try #11,13 | Hardly Art |
| Bear Hands | Distraction | Synthy rock, anthem-y. Some tracks have a more electronic influence others more organic. Surfy at times. Try #2,6,7 FCC #2,4 | Cantora Records |
| Bleeding Rainbow | Interrupt | Often noisy garage pop/rock. Split between male and female vox. RIYL: Cloud Nothings | Kanine Records |
| Cherry Glazer Haxel Princess | Cherry Glazel Haxel Princess | Somewhat lo-fi slacker garage pop/rock. Really cheesy lyrics, especially Track 2. FCC #5,6,8 RIYL: Best Coast | Burger Records |
| Damaged Bug | Hubba Bubba | John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees found a synth and decided to make a lo-fi garage album out of his home-made textures and drum machines. Pretty weird. Pretty cool. | Castle Face Records |
| Gabriel Garzón-Montano | Gabriel Garzón-Montano | Coo-ing vox with nice electronic instrumentals in the bawck. Varied voice but some parts are a little too slow. RIYL: Rhye | Sus Records |
| Jprizm | Mindwalker | Uninteresting rapper, vox and lyrics nothing special. Primarily electronic beats with some electronic, lyric-less songs. | Komatoast |
| Majestico | When Kingdom Come | Psych punk with a little country. Not fast and energetic. Some bad songwriting. | ATO Records |
| Michael Kiwanuka | You’ve Got Nothing to Lose 7″ | Two song EP – mellow RnB that is an easy listen. Vox a little unclear. | Third Man |
| Pillar Point | Pillar Point | Familiar sounding synth pop mixed with “chillwave” elements. Some cool synth beats, the songs are catchy enough. RIYL: Hot Chip, Painted Palms | Polyvinyl Records |
| Preston Lovinggood | Shadow Songs | Strange, genre-hopping tracks bounce from soothing indie-rock to more “Strokes”-like ballads. Disorienting. Try #2. | Communicating Vessels |
| Pypy | Pagan Day | Female fronted rock band with lots of fuzz and killer guitar solos. Iffy vox, overall sounds like T. Rex. Try #4,5,7 | Black Gladiator |
| Sam Smith | Sampler | Incredible vox, coustic is something else (#4). Disclosure fans may like this solo work, but I wish he had done less electronic instrumental to show off vox. | Capitol Records |
| Sleepy Sun | Maui Tears | Psych rock. Sounds mostly like Tame Impala and Flaming Lips at parts. Try #2,3,5,4 | Dine Alone Records |
| Solids | Blame Confusion | Garage punk/fuzz rock. Operate all their songs in the same manner – fast and punchy. Not very impressive. Try #5 | Fat Possum Records |
| The Notwist | Close to the Glass | Electro-indie pop. An enjoyable enough listen with various soundscapes – structures of sounds allow for fuller and more elegant sounds than traditional indie pop getups. RIYL: The Microphones Try #5,7,12 | Sub Pop Records |
| Tôg | Feiring | Norwegian house music. Poppy, danceable, lyrics are in Norwegian. | Red Eye Transit |
| U.S. Royalty | Blue Sunshine | Similar to Local Natives/any folk/rock/indie band. Lots of harmonies with decent guitar. Try #2,4 | Self-released |
| Web of Sunsets | Room of Monsters | Dreamy, soaked pop. Slow, male and female vox with a slight country feel. Try #1,4,6 RIYL: Mazzy Star FCC Clean | AAM Records |
Disclaimer: These reviews do not reflect the views of WHUS as a whole, just the views of a select few members of the New Music Committee (who meet Thursdays at 6:30pm in the WHUS Lobby – come by if you want to add your own opinions).