Weekend Music Roundup!

Welcome to the first Roundup of the new year! As the first releases begin to trickle out, I'm always excited to see what another year of music will bring. In the meantime, there's still mountains of music from years before that needs to be heard and digested. I still have a bunch of music from last year that I hadn't had a chance to properly hear. I'll be sharing some of those in the coming weeks, as well as discoveries from before that. Enjoy.

Welles - Red Trees and White Trashes: The debut full length album from the California native is very enjoyable indie rock that has throwbacks to the 00's and even late '90s with garage rock and grunge influences that sound inspired by the music coming out during the last decade. This was one of those albums that I knew I liked upon first listen, and then come to really like on second listen. "Seventeen" and "9.8" are two of the best songs I've heard in a long time. 

The Decemberists - Traveling On: This new EP follows the Portland bands wonderful full length album released earlier in the year. These songs were tracks that didn't make the cut, but are no less wonderful than what was included. The title track is amazing, but fans will certainly love every song on here. Once again, they affirm themselves as one of the best bands of the century so far.

Neon - Neon: The one and only album from the psychedelic blues band was released in 1971. I picked this up at the local shop a few weeks back based on the cover and some listener ratings. This is nothing too earth-shattering, but it's a good hard rock record. Having never been released on CD and never re-issued on vinyl, it's become one of those obscure albums that dealers like to over-charge for. Luckily my local shop keeps prices reasonable. Definitely worth checking out if you're into heavy blues rock from the era. 

Sleep Party People - Lingering Pt. II: This is the Danish neo-psych band's fifth album and I took a chance on it based on the fact that they used a Mark Ryden image for the cover. This is a bit on the quiet side, as the band title might suggest. It reminds me a bit of MGMT at their lazy moments, but that's not to suggest there isn't something pleasing about the record, it's just kind of background music. Enjoyable, dreamy, and a bit experimental.

Craig Wedren - Adult Desire: The Shudder to Think singer's fourth solo record was released in 2017, and recently re-released in this deluxe edition. I've always been a fan of his work, but missed this one when it came out, so I was glad to catch it this time around. It follows the lo-key style of his other solo work, but infuses glitch pop into the sound and does so very effectively. His work is so subtle that I think it's often overlooked, especially considering how dynamic and different Shudder to Think were in the 90's, but I think that's one of things that makes it special.

Peel Dream Magazine - Modern Meta Physic: The debut album from the New York musician, Joe Stevens, is an experimental lo-fi piece that is interesting, if not altogether absorbing. There's a lot of tape looping here and lots of recorded old television playback and it's all mashed together to create a sonic scrapbook of sorts. Definitely an interesting listen, but nothing particularly new or earth shattering.

T.I.T.S. - Throughout the Ages: The debut album from the San Fran female noise rock band was released as a split with Leopard Leg. Picked up this 2006 noise rock record a few months back for $1 and it's a surprisingly great improvisation of noise rock. With roots in '90s Rrriot Grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, Cake-like, and Babes in Toyland, this is record takes that sound and interprets it through darkwave noise rock that reminds me of Queenadreena. Each side of the record contains one track that weaves it's way through a soundscape of pleasant nightmares. I love making discoveries like this.