WIBLT: Spring Clean Your Playlists & Add These Fresh Faces
What I've Been Listening To, 3/31/21
POV: March is over, daylight savings has begun, the weather is warm, you’re going outside again, and you want new music in your life. You’ve come to the right place.
If reading isn’t your thing, make sure to follow the WIBLT playlist that always updates with the 8 standout tracks from each of these posts:
Really From - Really From
9 tracks, 34 minutes
Released: March 12th, 2021
From: Boston, MA
Genres: Punk, Indie, Jazz
Recommended For Fans Of: Kamasi Washington, American Football
If you’ve been waiting for a band that properly combines improvisational jazz, punk, and midwest emo (with maybe a little ska?), wait no more. That kind of unique genre blending is bound to happen when your four piece band consists of a keyboard player, drummer, guitarist, and trumpeter, all Berklee graduates. The group’s self-titled album is their third project, and first release since 2017. Michi Tassey and Chris Lee-Rodriguez trade off vocal duties throughout the album, drawing lyrical inspiration from their “personal reflections on the ways culture, family, trauma and others’ expectations all come together to shape identity” (the band name will sound familiar to anyone who’s every been asked “no like where are you really from”). There’s a very strong three track run at the beginning of the project from Quirk to Try Lingual (that the standout track below falls right in the middle of), and the epic cacophony of In The Spaces is not to be missed either.
Standout Track: Yellow Fever
work in progress - Godly the Ruler
7 tracks, 13 minutes
Released: January 29th, 2021
From: Chicago, IL
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: Baby Keem, Injury Reserve
Godly the Ruler is just a junior at University of Wisconsin, but his latest EP sounds more polished and innovative than many artists who do music full time. In the same vein as Jay-Z, Godly the Ruler doesn’t write down any of his raps before spitting them. Instead, he’ll sit in front of a microphone listening to the beat, and let his mind take over. The production smacks you in the face with its heavy drums and bass, while the guitars and synths slide in to give the tracks an undeniable swagger. His vocals match the raw production but also sound so sweet in a way that brings Baby Keem to mind. I’ve been following him since hearing the boisterous single Mortal Kombat last year, but somehow this January EP slipped under my radar. His newest track ZION was so good it made me go back and realized I missed something.
Standout Track: Mortal Kombat
Life Like - Tom Verberne
5 tracks, 15 minutes
Released: March 11th, 2021
From: Auckland, New Zealand
Genres: Alternative, Electronic, Emo
Recommended For Fans Of: The 1975, James Ivy, bearface
Verberne released his second album I’ll Watch You Do Anything last summer and is quickly following it up with this excellent EP. The project blends electronic elements with punk and 2000s rock. At just 20 years old, Verberne is still exploring and experimenting with his sound, but this EP feels like his most focused and realized project to date. For Life Like, he focused on recording with primarily live drums and instruments for the first time. Verberne has been able to take advantage of New Zealand’s excellent handling of the pandemic by opening for some stops of Benee’s recent tour there in October (it was the country’s first major tour since March 2020).
Standout Track: It Shows Heaps
Sol Glo - Uno Hype
14 tracks, 45 minutes
Released: March 12th, 2021
From: Gaithersburg, MD
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: Kota The Friend, Saba, Mick Jenkins
Growing up in a neighboring Maryland town, I’ve watched Uno Hype hustle for a long time now. So with his early mixtapes Ready For Takeoff and Fxck the Hype dating back to the early 2010s, and his years fronting the band G.U.M.P., it’s surprising to me to realize that this is his debut solo album. Sol Glo is a culmination of all those efforts and years of work, the care and time is evident in the final product. It feels timeless in a way that shows he hasn’t abandoned the “blog-era” sound he came up on while still progressing and pushing his sound forward a lot since then. Hype put the project in good hands when he went to Classick Studios to work on the album, the studio where it seems nearly every artist to pop out of Chicago has worked at. There, the album was mixed by L10MixedIt, who has previously mixed artists like Chance the Rapper, Noname, & Smino. Plenty of standouts here for me like Miss Home, Untitled, and Color Me. But Pot of Gold sets the album’s tone straight away.
Standout Track: Pot Of Gold
Cherry - Anna Fox Rochinski
10 tracks, 39 minutes
Released: March 26th, 2021
From: Brooklyn, NY
Genres: Electronic, Pop, Indie
Recommended For Fans Of: Beck, Robyn, Fiona Apple
Cherry is the debut solo album from Anna Fox Rochinski after leaving the band Quilt, which she co-fronted for almost a decade. While she moved away from Quilt’s primarily psychedelic sounds towards something more pop, it’s a bit difficult to pin down the exact sound of this record. This is clear from the influences that Rochinski cites as “Madonna, Can, Midnite Vultures-era Beck, Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo, and Robyn's 1995 debut.” After writing and making demos by herself, Rochinksi tapped producers Carlos Hernandez and Julian Fader (members of the band Ava Luna) to help organize and complete the songs. Below is the title track, which premiered on NPR in January, and features a beautiful video shot in Arizona.
Standout Track: Cherry
Survive - Show Me The Body
3 tracks, 10 minutes
Released: March 19th, 2021
From: New York, NY
Genres: Hardcore, Punk
Recommended For Fans Of: Daughters, Health
Admittedly, while I do attempt to listen to everything, hardcore is really one of the last genres I find myself drawn to. But something about Show Me The Body feels different. Maybe it’s their picture on the label’s website that shows lead vocalist Julian Cashwan-Pratt crowdsurfing a mosh pit while playing a banjo. Maybe it’s the different scenes that intersect at their live shows, consistently doing concerts with hip-hop acts such as WIFIGAWD, Hook, Mike, & Nedarb. I can’t put my finger on it, but where other hardcore artists don’t intrigue me, Show Me The Body does. Even as I get older and feel like my days in the pit are largely behind me, these three tracks make me wish I was sweating through my clothes while getting knocked around a small venue. Also don’t miss out on the album cover’s coffin dice, for sale on their website.
Standout Track: Rubberband
The Way Music Looks - LÂLKA
5 tracks, 13 minutes
Released: March 17th, 2021
From: Borneo -> Brisbane, Australia
Genres: Electronic, Bubblegum Pop, Glitch, House
Recommended For Fans Of: Shygirl, Dorian Electra, Charli XCX
Another great find from Bandcamp’s essential releases series. Any fans of “weird” pop like PC Music and 100 gecs will enjoy this intersection of art, experimentation, and pop music. It’s a bold and complete statement for a debut project that sees the multi-talented producer, vocalist, and artist putting all on display. LÂLKA used the time of isolation when the pandemic hit to work on creating visuals for each track of the project (the EP comes with a complete visualizer). “Working on the visuals provided an escape for me, and also reminded me of the inner strength and creativity in all of us to overcome life’s challenges,” LÂLKA told Kaltblut Magazine. An introvert by nature, this EP stems from the singer’s recent understanding of her desire to be seen.
Standout Track: XOXO Kiss Kiss Kiss
Fake - Conor Lynch
11 tracks, 33 minutes
Released: February 26th, 2021
From: Michigan
Genres: Alternative, Folk, Indie, Singer-Songwriter
Recommended For Fans Of: Alex G, Pete Yorn, Elliot Smith
I first heard Conor Lynch after discovering him on Soundcloud last year. I followed for his music, but was then gifted with all the other great artists he reposts too. Just a special shoutout to the Soundcloud account that keeps on giving. This whole album was written and produced by Lynch, and marks a change of pace from his previous project, People Don’t Think It Be Like It Is but It Do and Don’t, from 2019. That album featured largely acoustic-folk and country songs. Fake keeps that same structure as the backbone, but will often layer it with heavier guitars and drums on top. It’s a style of music that he refers to as “mid-fi.”
Standout Track: Dead End
A Song
BPE - Buttdial
My friend, artist & soup expert Dead Emerson, put me onto this debut track by the band Butt Dial. He described it as having the same energy as “a gen z girl I saw walking down the street wearing a denim jacket with ‘dead men can’t catcall’ on the back.” I would describe it as a Riot grrrl x Hinds crossover episode, but Emerson probably did it more justice. Listen for yourself to decide, and check out the music video that appears to be dropping shortly after this post is published.
A Video
Sports With Strangers - HUNNY
They are not as trailblazing as The Strokes were when they exploded onto the scene. But if you’re looking for the same energy of guitar driven rock by shaggy white dudes who are too cool to care, this is the video for you. And the hook’s been stuck in my head all week.
It’s been a lot of What I’ve Been Listening To posts these past two months, but I’ve got some feature articles I’m working on that will be coming out very soon. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss them!