Posts Tagged ‘alt rock’

NYC art-rockers Ecce Shnak present ‘Eddie, Legalistic Homeslice’, the second single from their full-length album Dandy Variances, anticipated later this year via Records, Man Records. Recorded and produced by Jeff Lucci, this single was mixed by Grammy award-winning producer Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, Julian Lennon).

Formed in the mid-1990s and forged in NYC’s experimental scene, Ecce Shnak (pronounced Eh-kay sh-knock) is made up of David Roush (composer, bassist and baritone vocalist), Bella Komodromos (vocals), Chris Krasnow (guitar), Gannon Ferrell (guitar), and Henry Buchanan-Vaughn (drums).

An ode to camaraderie, ‘Eddie’ reaches its lyrical denouement with what may be the “oldest prayer of friendship", but sounds like a throwaway Rivers Cuomo line: “I pray you don’t be a rat in a rat-suit! Pray you don’t be a rat in a rat-costume!”

“Like ‘Larry, Sleepover Friend’ from our 2019 Joke Oso EP, our new song is a garage-rock homage to a beloved friend of mine. Like ‘Larry’, ‘Eddie’ explores big themes in great friendships: their gnarly ambivalences, their absurd misunderstandings, their inside-jokes, and their contradictory mix of irreverence with utmost care,” says David Roush.

“We are also overjoyed to feature two great friends as the co-stars of the music video, the preposterously funny and talented comedic duo Syd and Olivia! I was lucky to have met these two pugnaciously podcasting, thoughtfully Thespian, joke-slinging YouTube yokels on a fantastic journey to the Greek island of Crete two years ago, and the rest was thirst’ory.”

Bella Komodromos adds, “They absolutely kicked butt at their roles in this Wes-Anderson-hued buddy-comedy music video, directed and produced by DJay Brawner. It is our ardent hope that all fans of Ecce Shnak and Syd and Olivia alike can shart out with their hearts out to this badass collaboration!”

Apart from directing and editing the new video with Brooks Jones, Beth Narducci and David Roush, Brawner also worked on the video for the album’s lead track ‘Vincent’, an homage to superb music videos of yesteryear – for Meshuggah’s ‘Bleed’ and 311’s ‘Down’. Here, operatic trills collide with frantic rock energy in a high-decibel takedown of a formulaic antagonist through the power of one’s own voice.

AA

ESn

Cor de Lux, the unorthodox alt-rock foursome from North Carolina’s outerbanks, who recently announced their signing to Ipecac Recordings, release their label debut, the J. Robbins-produced YEAR OF THE HORSE, on 18th September.

A preview of the nine-song album arrives today with ‘The Cringe’ and its accompanying video. The snarling single charges forward at full blast before veering into an atmospheric passage where the intertwined guitars of Dawn Moraga and Tim Lusk drift into haunting territory.

Moraga says of the track: “Living in a developing country really engraved in my heart about knowing what is important and what is not,” referencing her time abroad in Nicaragua. “Materialism fades like bad jeans. The exploitation of the poor to make the rich richer makes my blood boil.”

Bass player John Bliven adds: “’The Cringe’ explains our disdain of the billionaire ‘elite’ and the system that keeps them rapidly gaining. ‘I make a dollar a day’ refers to CEOs giving themselves a tiny salary while obtaining massive share value. Those shares aren’t taxed unless sold, and even then, that tax rate is less than the income tax everyone else pays.”

Watch the video here:

AA

Produced by J. Robbins (War on Women, Mary Timony), YEAR OF THE HORSE captures Cor de Lux’s competing impulses: abrasion and melody. Atmosphere and momentum, chaos and control. Across nine songs, the Kill Devil Hills quartet balances post-hardcore urgency, shoegaze bliss, and guitar-driven catharsis. Recorded with Robbins, the album preserves the raw chemistry that defines the band while pushing their songwriting into sharper, more immediate territory.

YEAR OF THE HORSE is available for pre-order now with the album available on multiple limited vinyl variants (including a hyper-limited Bandcamp exclusive swirl vinyl and Ipecac/Cor de Lux orange effect vinyl), standard black vinyl, cassette, CD, and digitally.

Long before joining Ipecac Recordings, Cor de Lux was creating their own ecosystem in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a place better known for wind, water, and distance than as an indie-rock launchpad. That outsider geography shaped them. There was no shortcut to visibility and no industry machine waiting nearby. So they did what bands do: they wrote songs, played hard, released music themselves, and kept going.

The group, Dawn Moraga (vocals/guitar), Tim Lusk (vocals/guitar), John Bliven (bass), and drummer Jacob Richardson, first introduced their sound on their self-titled 2020 release, followed by Mediain 2023. Across both records, Cor de Lux established a voice rooted in tension and movement: post-hardcore urgency, shoegaze atmosphere, guitar-centered unpredictability, and the chemistry that only comes from musicians learning each other in real time.

That chemistry is the band’s engine. Since their outset, the musicians have stayed true to their belief of creating art without ego. Preferring to arrive at rehearsals willing to chase ideas rather than dictating marching orders, their songs are born out of spontaneity letting each members’ skillset share equal space in the spotlight. As Moraga explains, the band will usually plug in and start jamming on a fresh idea before rehearsing their established set. Often, it will be a dead end road, but on special occasions it will cause them to scramble to get it recorded. “Usually once or twice a month we will hit on something and go ‘oh no, not another new song,’” says Moraga with a laugh.

YEAR OF THE HORSE sounds like a band that earned every inch of its growth. Cor de Lux has been building from the margins: hauling gear, making records on their own terms, and forging community one show at a time. Now, with the reach of Ipecac Recordings behind them, they arrive not as newcomers, but as something rarer: a fully formed band entering its next chapter.

AA

Cor-de-Lux-Glossy-creditJordanOliviaHowell-990000079e04513c

Photo credit: Jordan Olivia Howell

18th June 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

The other day, my daughter came home from school complaining – not for the first time – about her English class, in which she’d been given ten minutes to come up with an idea for a story, and to plan the opening two paragraphs, and then perhaps another twenty to write the aforementioned paragraphs. She makes the same complaint about art and music lessons. “They expect us to write a song, with chords and a melody in fifteen minutes,” she moans. “Doing creative stuff just doesn’t work like that, Dad. How do they not know this?” She’s absolutely right. This is essentially where the distinction lies between making content and creating art, and artists all have different methods and work at different rates, often even between different projects. Sometimes, the thing just flows and – boom! It’s there. Other times, however, something just doesn’t quite click, and all the fiddling in the world doesn’t do it.

Ally The Truth, the new single from Devon-based alternative rock band Gravity Machine is, as they put it, ‘a track with a long gestation’. In fact, it began life in 2020, the same year they released their debut album, Red. There have been a few single releases since then, but it’s only now that they finally unveil this ‘epic tale of a relationship moving from curiosity to joining to fighting to resolution before finally hitting the universal truth of love and connection.’ That’s clearly the description of a work of art rather than mere content, and so it is that ‘Ally the Truth’ is epic in every sense, and not only in terms of its seven-minute duration.

It builds from an elongated drone with clattering drums reverberating in the distance, with a value lick of New Age vibes creeping around the edges before, suddenly, the song itself bursts in from nowhere, and we find ourselves in the midst of a sweeping amalgamation of alt-rock, psychedelia, and folk – a bit All About Eve, but also (yes, this is a bit of an obscure one, even for fans of 90s alt rock) a bit Eight Story Window (which is one way of saying, you should probably explore their album, too). It’s airy, atmospheric… and there are layers, and layers, and stages and stages – and with each segment, they step things up, until just a couple of minutes in, we’re being spun through a sandstorm of kaleidoscopic rock, before, later – much later – we find ourselves being escorted, gently, back down from the summit of the crescendo on a rippling piano and a chorus of voices. Such is the drama and dynamic of the song that it’s easy to lose the thread of the narrative – which means that you just have to go back and explore it all again. What a chore!

It’s not hard to grasp why this song took so long to reach its final version: ambitious would be an understatement. It’s compelling, immersive, atmospheric, exciting, and there is just so much happening. And all of it’s good.

AA

LandscapePhoto_Credit_Adriana Banari

Photo: Adriana Banari

16th February 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

Holy fuck. Sometimes, you want a racket, because it blows away all the shit, the, the anxiety, the bewilderment, all the other messy crap that is life right now. And I do mean right now: not ‘the twenty-first century’, not the 2020s – although the last five years has been a relentless pummelling of awful, awful stuff – but this is the immediate present we’re looking at here. ‘Unprecedented’ is a word we hear a lot. But we really do live in times which are unprecedented. Waking up every morning wondering what fresh new hell has happened in the hours since you went to bed, wondering if the world still exists and if you have really woken up or if this is all a hellish nightmare is gruelling.

With UPSIDEYERHEAD, PLQ MRX deliver that racket. Their bio tells it that ‘From the depths of North Philadelphia’s underground comes PLQ MRX, a project operating at the intersection of abrasive noise rock, acid-soaked psychedelia, and warped funk’. Say what? We go on to learn that ‘Beyond the music itself, PLQ MRX cultivate an aesthetic steeped in excess, altered states, and grotesque carnival imagery. Their world is populated by surreal characters and exaggerated rituals, exploring pleasure, debauchery, and sensory overload. The band leans into both the highs and the ugly turns of the trip, embracing chaos as a core element of its identity’.

When we discover that PLQ MRX have emerged from ‘the remnants of the Philadelphia collective Plaque Marks, who first surfaced in 2017 with the EP Anxiety Driven Nervous Worship’ and that the current lineup features current and former members of Author & Punisher, UNSANE and SWANS (having been joined by Vinnie Signorelli for this release), it all makes sense.

And yes, it’s every bit as wild as the amalgamation of ‘abrasive noise rock, acid-soaked psychedelia, and warped funk’ would have you expect.

‘Us V. Them’ crashes in with some wild, frenetic jazz action before a thunderous riff crashes in, drums and bass to the fore, guitar a wah-wah laden blitzkrieg that calls to mind The Stooges. The vocals – half-spoken, half-spat, thick with distortion and swamped in reverb, sit almost on another plane, growling and snarling away amidst the maelstrom. Making out the lyrics isn’t easy, but feeling the vibe zaps straight to the very core instantaneously.

There’s a dirty, low-slung swaggering groove to ‘Gansta White Walls’, which locks into a heavy bass-led workout and grinds away, building layers of depth a couple of minutes or so in before hitting the ‘frenzied, motorik’ pedal, while the eight-and-a-half minute ‘Gentrify My Skull’ is a brawling, squalling sludgy stoner doom monster, littered with scrappy samples and as ugly as hell, with mangled-to-fuck vocals and a relentlessly gut-churning bass, and bursting into a full-throttle blast of black metal at the end.

The final track, ‘Hundred Dollar Hot Dog’ is the album’s shortest, but packs the most into a mere three and a half minutes. It really does seem to be a song about an expensive hot dog, and brings the rage in spades, with a lengthy refrain of ‘Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you’ amidst a squall of guitar and an all-pervading dense murk.

It’s rare to hear a release that doesn’t sound like anything else, but with UPSIDEYERHEAD, PLQ MRX have done it. It’s crazed, outside the box racketmongering of the highest order. It might be genius, it might be madness, but it’s absolutely head-spinningly awesome.

AA

German-born, Ireland-based musician DAMIEN CAIN returns this winter with Standarte, an atmospheric, emotionally charged alt-rock album available from today December 12th on the main digital streaming services. Now living in Co. Laois, the artist describes the record as “the most honest and personal work I’ve ever made,” a project shaped as much by his three decades in music as by the new creative grounding he found in Ireland.

In order to celebrate his new effort, DAMIEN CAIN released the music videos for the songs ‘Fascinating Face’ and the title-track. A dark, emotional fusion of nu-metal and emo rock, ‘Fascinating Face’ the song explores the feeling of being trapped between denial and desire, telling yourself you’re not in love anymore, while every memory still pulls you back in. The video reflects this tension: a stream of hyper-real faces emerging from darkness, each one holding a different emotion: longing, fear, hope, desire, regret. Behind them, subtly woven into the shadows, DAMIEN CAIN appears singing the song, as if haunting their memories… or being haunted by his own. It creates an unintended, but powerful illusion: as though the story plays out inside the minds of the people on screen, and inside the places we hide our unsaid feelings. ‘Fascinating Face’ is about the intimacy we try to forget, the seconds we sealed inside us, the scent, the skin, the breath – the pieces of someone we carry even when we insist we’ve moved on.

The title-track goes back to ‘Wallenstein’, a song from the early ’90s. DAMIEN CAIN explained that “the original ‘Wallenstein’ was inspired by Salvador Dalí’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross. It was my protest song against war, power, and blind faith – written when I was twenty and full of rage and questions. The new song continues that thread, but from a different angle. It’s still a protest, but now it’s also a reflection. I’m angry about the same things, but I’ve learned to turn that anger into poetry instead of noise.”

AA

Damien M. Cain_1 (c) 2025 by Peter Smallwood

Damian Cain by Peter Smallwood

Oakland alt-rock trio Sword Tongue presents ‘Murder White Noise’, a wry commentary on the state of the world and our attempts to soothe ourselves to get through it. The latest offering from their explosive Bonfire In The Tempest EP – their fourth to date.

In an increasingly stressful world, this song explores how people try to externalize their anxieties by consuming content that allows them to feel better about their own lives. We attempt to cope with the pressure of maintaining equilibrium by coming together to grieve, worry, and comfort each other, often finding that the only way to feel good about our lives is to reflect on others’ misfortunes.

Creating dark music for dark times, Sword Tongue is vocalist Jennifer Wilde and guitarist Gaetano Maleki, a husband and wife who launched this project in the pandemic year of 2020, now joined by renowned drummer-producer Dan Milligan.

“I started consuming true crime content as a way to turn off the thoughts that kept me awake at night and distracted me during the day. One day I told a friend I was a listening to a livestreamed trial where a lady put her husband on a burn pile. She said “WHOAH, what is that, murder white noise?” As I told people about the song, I found many others watch crime stories as a release from their stressful lives. It is important to bring that into the conversation about how we are coping today,” says Jennifer Wilde.

“Finding comfort in tragedy is new for me; during the pandemic and especially in the last year I find myself needing to look for reassurance that whatever I am facing is not as bad as it could be. ‘Murder White Noise’ was written as a way to come to grips that someone else’s pain is that content, and what that says about where we are as a society right now. Gaetano wrote the perfect guitar line that hooks you in to get to the truth of the song.”

On ‘Murder White Noise’, soothing vocals contrast with the song’s macabre lyrical content, while steadily thrumming instrumentation lulls you into a false sense of security.  For a moment, the listener feels heard and encouraged, then questions their own motivations, left to wonder whether they are now the tragic victim in this story.
”From a songwriting perspective, this pulled a lot of anxiety out of me,” says Gaetano Maleki. “While writing the guitar and bass lines, I wanted to bring out tension to mirror the vocals, but with some kind of seductive undertones. I feel the instruments really complement the lyrics, like a hard boiled soundtrack.”

AA

Sword Tongue

Oakland-based alternative rock / darkwave trio Sword Tongue presents the video for ‘We Are The Resistance’ , a dark gem showcasing their explosive fourth EP Bonfire In The Tempest. Galvanized, song by song, during our current age of cultural upheaval, this release is bursting with raw emotion and tempered by sophisticated production, launching the band into uncharted territory.

This EP is a love letter to the music we all loved in the 90s. Long delays, lush chorus sounds, deep flanges and modulations – a guitar tone chaser’s dream, married with deep distorted growling bass lines, hard driven drums and pulsing, electronic dance beats provide the texture over which soaring female vocals triumph. At times a whisper, and other times a roar, each song crafted in the crucible of these modern, unprecedented times.

In these five loaded tracks, vocalist Jennifer Wilde delivers alluring vocal lines that oscillate between a croon and a roar, seduction and rage. Gaetano Maleki’s signature shimmering guitar tones and bass lines mesmerize and ensnare, while Dan Milligan’s intricate drum lines drive the message and become the heartbeat of this sonic tour de force reminiscent of the 90s.

Capturing the essence of 90s alternative music, reimagined for a new era, Sword Tongue weaves together rock, industrial, shoegaze, post-punk and trip hop, giving voice to anguish, anger, transformation and triumph. Pulling from an array of musical styles, from electronic music to space rock, the band earlier shared the single ‘Diamonds To Rust’.

“Originally, this album was meant to be more of a danceable opus with a trip hop flavor. However, after the U.S. Presidential election, we realized that our album had to carry a more specific message on the current pollical climate, on aging, and on transitions. We wanted to give voice to the frustration, the anguish, the strength, and the hope in all of us,” says Jennifer Wilde.

AA

AA

Debuting in 2020 during the pandemic, Sword Tongue creates dark music for dark times, casting a shadow of hope in the twilight. Formed by husband-and-wife duo Gaetano Maleki and Jennifer Wilde, the project is their love language and the culmination of their life’s work as musicians. Wilde, a classically trained vocalist who has performed with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, has been a guest vocalist and lyricist for seminal shoegaze band Love Spirals Downwards. Maleki brings an intensity from his background in heavy music, infusing his shimmering guitar soundscapes with sonic weight.

The pair were then joined by renowned producer and drummer Dan Milligan, whose driving contribution has infused the music with more depth, drive and dimension. The brainchild of The Joy Thieves, he has quite the history co-creating, producing and remixing such artists as Chris Connelly, PIG and Consolidated, and members of such bands as Ministry, Stabbing Westward, The Rollins Band, Killing Joke, David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, among others.

AA

a1346885614_10

Brooklyn alt rockers CLONE present ‘Care To Try?’, the title track from their Care To Try EP, a blazing three-track offering set for release on October 3 via Portland label Little Cloud Records. The band recently shared the adrenaline-inducing lead single ‘Galvanized’.

Written over the past year with Clone’s original lineup of LG Galleon, Gregg Giufree (Pilot to Gunner), Max Idas and Dominick Turi, this EP was produced by LG Galleon and Bisi at his famed BC Studio (built together with Brian Eno), and mastered by Fred Kevorkian (The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Juliana Hatfield, Regina Spektor, Lloyd Cole).

"Well ‘Care to Try?’ is a retribution song. A song that cries out for the disenfranchised and undersung people in the world whose voices are never heard above the drowning of the right wing nationalist leaders in this world,” says LG Galleon.  “The spoken word bridge signals out to this issue with the line "with all charisma there is scorn, with every swoon another’s heart will stammer slowly in submission. To Glimpse what could have been through the eyes of another.”

AA

a1058073376_10

5th June 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It may seem hard to believe, but there is music beyond Glastonbury at this time of year, and it may seem even harder to credit, but more than ten acts played the festival. And because right now, it seems there’s nothing but wall-to-wall debate over Bob Vylan’s performance, I feel more than ever that my job here is to focus my energy elsewhere. The only thing I will say on the matter is that it’s staggering just how vehement the criticism has been of the band in the media and by the government, when criticism of the perpetrators of genocide has been largely non-existent. The statement on the stage backdrop makes the point perfectly: “Free Palestine. The United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a ‘conflict’.” And yet, I’ve observed countless couch warriors calling Bob Vylan ‘opportunists’ and ‘attention seekers’.

And this is where we land with ‘What You Made Me Do’, the new single by female-fronted grungy alt-rock four-piece Shallow Honey. Not because it’s a political song – it isn’t – but because it’s a song that comes from that breaking point where something just gives. Because normal dialogue simply has no effect. When the only way to get someone to listen is by going to an extreme.

I am screaming for attention

finding all the words

the words that can offend you.

Rai, Shallow Honey’s vocalist, describes the meaning behind the track: “WHAT YOU MADE ME DO is a track about when you have been calmly expressing your feelings and frustrations to someone over a long period of time, yet have not been heard. After a while of repeating yourself and trying to meet them where they’re at with nothing back – you will snap! Like holding a beach ball under water – you can only push it down for so long. It feels good to let go – but it’s also really scary and sobering”.

It’s indubitably relatable for most of us – and for those who it’s not relatable, it’s likely because you’re the one who’s given to endless stonewalling, the shit who will act surprised, dumbfounded, offended, and then suggest that this is an overreaction from someone who’s being sensitive or whatever.

‘What You Made Me Do’ is appropriately fiery, with driving guitars to the fore in what is a solid rock tune that would could have come from that early ‘90s golden age of grunge. But Rai’s vocals, while, strong, bring melody, with a tone reminiscent of Gwen Stefani, giving the song an instant accessibility – without diluting the power of the sentiment.

B-sides ‘Aim Low’ and ‘Start the Ride’ are both of a similar quality, with guts and a raw energy that’s completely compelling.

In short: this is good stuff. Dig it. More soon, please.

AA

AA

Shallow Honey - Artwork

The Whimbrels is an outer-borough masterpiece. The sound is dense, polyrhythmic, hard, and sweet, hooks and riffs to save your soul pop out at unexpected moments. The players’ credits — The Glenn Branca Ensemble (dating to the 1980s), The Swans, J. Mascis — predict the guitar-driven, sonic onslaught of The Whimbrels, captured on their startling debut – and as a taster, they’ve unveiled a video for the song ‘She is the Leader’.

A Whimbrels show involves racks of guitars, tuned in different and unconventional ways with the players constantly switching between them. ‘The Whimbrels’ album showcases this. There are counterpoint choirs, dueling e-bows phase against each other, chunking, poly- and cross-rhythmic interludes, soaring arias of distortion from Westberg and Evans’ strangely melodic and inventive guitar. Evans’ and Hunter’s vocals front a three-guitar line up tuned every way but normal. The ax men are veterans with contrasting styles that come together in a potent whole. The beats are smart and unrelenting. The album concludes with the instrumental Four Moons of Galileo, four short sections with the inner two framed by shimmering walls of descending, slowly evolving harmonies. The title recalls the four moons discovered by Galileo, suggesting the many more then lurking unknown in space.

ARAD EVANS (guitar, vox, primary songwriter) was a member, recorded and toured with Glenn Branca’s ensemble from the 1980’s until Branca’s death a few years ago. He is founder and still performs with Heroes of Toolik. In addition to Branca, he has played with Quiet City, Rhys Chatham, Ben Neill, John Myers’ Blastula, The SEM Ensemble, The New Music Consort, Virgil Moorefield’s Ensemble and many other groups. “A truly inventive and surprising guitar player.” (Rick Moody, The Rumpus Aug. 25, 2016).

NORMAN WESTBERG altered the course of rock as the main guitarist of the Swans over 35 years, contributing "overwhelming waves of volume with a mix of the rhythmically slashing and the harmonically sensual." He has a busy career as a solo artist and with other projects, such as Heroin Sheiks, NeVah and Five Dollar Priest.

LUKE SCHWARTZ is a New York guitarist and composer to watch; he also toured and recorded with Branca, and he performs in a wide range of groups, including Rick Cox, Joh Hassell, Lotti Golden, Wharton Tiers and with several of his own projects, The Review and the improvisational Hive and Quiet City and is in demand for film scoring work.

MATT HUNTER (bass, vox, songwriter) is a co-founder of New Radiant Storm King and plays or has played with a galaxy of cool projects, including J. Mascis & the Fog, King Missile, Silver Jews, SAVAK, and his own Matt Hunter and the Dusty Fates.

Drummer STEVE DiBENEDETTO, is a widely shown and collected fine art painter but also in in high demand for his music. ("The Spinless Yesmen" 1984—89, "Wonderama",aka "The Shapir-o-Rama" 1990—95, Airport Seven from 2010 to 14). He frequently collaborates with Dave Rick (Bongwater, King Missile, Yo La Tengo, Phantom Tollbooth) and Kim Rancourt (When People Were Shorter and Lived by the Water).

LIBBY FAB (drummer on That’s How It Was) is a founding member of the noise duo Paranoid Critical Revolution. She was technical director of Glenn Branca’s Symphony 13: Hallucination City from 2006-09 and toured as drummer for his ensemble on the Ascension: The Sequel tours. Her own electro acoustic and video works have been featured in festivals in Europe, North America and the Caribbean.

JIM SANTO (producer) partnered for many years with Wharton Tiers in the fabled The Kennel studio. At his own Tiny Olive, Santo has worked with a wide range of clients and projects. As a guitar player, his credits include The Sharp Things, George Usher and Harley Fine.

The New York Times once placed Arad Evans on “an index of creative or experimental electric-guitar-based music in America — young lords of the wild in the post-rock tradition.” That description fits The Whimbrels perfectly. You may need earplugs.

AA

Whimbrels_platforms