Full to the brim with brooding sonic plights and a soaring blend of alternative nostalgia, Dino Expedition share their new single, “Lose Your Mind”, as well as announce their debut album Thanks A Million. This release finds the Brooklyn-based band operating at their fullest, building from a solo project called Tahls, Dino Expedition is Tahlia Amanson (vocals/guitar), Aiden Velazquez (bass) and Frankie Adams (drums). Pushing potent orchestration to the edge of mutual discovery and reflection into moments of seismic growth, “Lose Your Mind” is a piece of the past that is meant to move forward, as Dino Expedition explode with new and dynamic life.
With a large presence from the get go, “Lose Your Mind” is heavy where it needs to be, and sincere throughout it all. With pounding percussion and conjuring low ends, the gentle, yet lush effect of Amanson’s vocals feel untethered to the weight below, while simultaneously flowing with ease to the driving rhythm. Recounting a story of watching her childhood neighbor’s house catch fire, she sings, “The glaring through the window shades / Will bring the light into the dark / Of the bedroom where you lose your mind”, recovering past memories and accepting their placement on a young mind now matured. It isn’t long until something ruptures inside, where melodic guitars and ecstatic dynamics seem to push through time itself, as “Lose Your Mind” relishes in the grandiose sounds of a band just getting started.
Dino Expedition is playing a single release show for “Lose Your Mind” at Purgatory in Brooklyn, NY on 8/14 alongside Whirlybird, Babe City and Mila Moon. Their debut record Thanks A Million is due November 15, with tapes available via TV-14 Recordings.
Through the twangy rock n’ roll and broken pop hooks that live in the heart of Chicago, Edie McKenna has had a hand in building the little congregations around town that make this music scene so special. Best known for her lead part in the band Modern Nun, who describe themselves as ‘queering their religious upbringing’, McKenna and co. have developed a type of spirituality brought out by acceptance and shared experience of music and community. Keeping to that theme, McKenna has shared her new track, “Hail Mary”, the last single off of her upcoming debut solo EP, For Edie. Written back in her teens, she revisits the trials and tribulations of growing up religious in a queer body, as she sings a prayer for who she was and who she’s become.
The song rouses to life with a fervent folk groove as an acoustic strum feels invigorated by the underlying bass and auxiliary percussion that meander along with purpose. “And underneath those stain glass windows I prayed / You’d take it away from me”, McKenna sings with ease, leaving the weight of the matter to carry itself. As the chorus reaches the holy trinity of thrice repeated ‘Hail Mary’s’, the underbelly of the groove brews with harsh distortion, letting loose a blissfully cathartic, and joyfully nostalgic release of tension and self-actualization that longs to be listened to on repeat.
Along with the song, McKenna shared in a statement;
“Hail Mary’ was written as a prayer to my younger self. I wrote these songs many years ago and while I cannot recall the writing process itself I know that it still feels, to this day, very cathartic to sing this song. When I was growing up, I could not comprehend my queerness as an actuality, more as the sin that it would eventually be to live out. So, I only acknowledged it by pleading with God to take it away before it became a more serious problem. The ‘Hail Mary’ prayer itself was always my go-to, so I thought I’d rewrite it to aid in my own healing and acceptance.”
“Hail Mary” is accompanied by a music video made with the help of Arden Lapin and Raine McKenna. McKenna’s debut EP, For Edie, is set to be released on August 23 via Devil Town Tapes, with a limited run of cassettes.
Written by Shea Roney | Album Artwork by Edie McKenna
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by Sleep Habits.
Sleep Habits is the New Orleans-based solo project of Alan Howard, who, through an impressive catalog and countless collaborations, has become a staple in the Louisiana scene and abroad. With a knack for twangy instrumentation and a heart for genuine connection, Sleep Habits is both an underground spearhead and collective curator of folk and alternative music. You can also find Howard playing with other artists such as Wesley Wolffe, Mariah Houston, Noa Jamir, Thomas Dollbaum, hemlock and many others.
Along with the playlist, Howard shared a blurb as to how it came together;
Sitting in the living room listening to cd’s with my family was one of the first ways that I connected with music. Recently I felt a desire to return to listening to music in that way so I started a cd collection of my own and began connecting with albums that I had only listened to on streaming platforms in a whole new way. It’s so satisfying to me to pick music from a physical library and look through photos and info from the booklet while you listen. I made this playlist using only songs from cds that are in my collection (except trinkets and horses which will be on cd soon hehe).
Trinkets and Horses, a collaborative album with Brooklyn-based songwriter, Mariah Houston, is celebrating its one year anniversary with a run of CD’s put together by Kiln Recordings.
“I almost forgot,” Olivia Wallace blurts out towards the end of our conversation. “I made a list of a couple local bands to shout out.” Reading from a prewritten list of local Chicago bands that have sparked some excitement for her – a moment of true music fandom;
“Well, Precocious Neophyte, they’re a shoegaze band from South Korea that lived in Chicago for awhile, but I think they’re moving away to Denver soon. They’re so good, they’re my favorite. Julia Morrison is a singer-songwriter I saw the other day. She’s so unique and unexpected in her vocals and lyrics. And then another local person I really like is Girl K, especially their foray into more pop oriented music. Super good.”
Olivia Wallace is the backbone behind the Chicago-based pop-rock project Sick Day. Earlier this year, Wallace and co. released their latest EP, Overexposure, under their new label home, Substitute Scene Records. As the follow up to 2022’s debut full length Love is a State of Mind,Overexposure rattles to the brim with soaring guitars and distorted anxiety. But cutting through the noise is an institution of pop melodies, as Sick Day turns moments of doubt and anguish into catchy one liners, relatable anecdotes and a pure enjoyment for loud music.
Whether putting together stacked local bills, hosting songwriting groups or photographing events, Wallace has a deep love and respect for the Chicago scene and the people who build it up. The conviction to relatability is crucial in her work – personifying, articulating and inviting shared experiences is not only a marking for mindful involvement, but a gesture to the community that Wallace wholeheartedly promotes. Made up of other Chicago musicians, Sick Day has become a local hub of heavy hitters and rock n roll softies alike, collaborating with artists like Ryan Donlin (Red Scarves, Chaepter), Jen Ashley (Cruel) and Robby Kuntz (Red Scarves, Old Joy) on drums, as well as a rotating cast of live players including Chaepter Negro (Chaepter) on cello and Kaity Szymborski as the groups new bass player.
Wallace and I recently got to catch up over coffee and a banana cream Danish to discuss the community that holds up the Chicago scene, the evolution of the Sick Day project and the importance of exposure in her songwriting.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity
Photo by Tracey Conoboy
Shea Roney: You’ve become a staple in the Chicago scene over the years, playing shows, collaborating with other artists and just being a big proponent for the community. What was your first exposure to local Chicago music and what stood out to you?
Sick Day: I didn’t start doing music for a few years after I moved to Chicago, but I feel like I didn’t really start to build that community until after COVID. It took me a while to, well, network is not the right word because it doesn’t feel like networking, but just becoming friends with people in the scene. Places like the golden dagger (RIP), friends’ house shows, and songwriting meetups that I had going a while back really helped.
SR: As someone so involved within it, where have you seen smaller bands struggle in this expanding and profit-driven industry?Are you still able to find hope in it all?
SD: As more and more of our public life takes place in online spaces mediated by tech corporations, it’s more important than ever to create real, personal community around the arts. Music is much more than a metric used for advertising and I’m somewhat afraid that musicians have internalized the backwards messages that apps like Spotify and Instagram have pushed upon us. The races for likes and streams and manufactured scarcity of popularity that leave people feeling atomized & undervalued. It’s so important for musicians to forge real-life connections because music isn’t about ego. It’s an extremely powerful spiritual force that makes the online narcissism factories look laughable. I do think the diversity of the music ecosystem is endangered, but I’m seeing more and more people craving real community in the arts, and that gives me hope!
SR: You have described yourself as a more solitary writer, but since the formation of the project, Sick Day has seen additions to your recording and live roster. How did this culmination of artists come to be?
SD: It takes a certain headspace of focus and like vortex of thought for me to really get into the songwriting space. So I write alone. The people on the EP are Ryan on lead guitar, who I’ve collaborated with a ton before, Robby on drums, and Jen on bass. I’ve played with them a lot in the past, and they’re amazing instrumentalists in that they pick up on songs so quickly. The final version of the song “It Hurts to Try” was probably Robby’s first time playing that song right before we went to the studio that day.
SR: There was a two year gap between the release of your debut LP Love is a state of Mind and Overexposure, marking a clear difference between the sonic build ups and performances in each. Did you find your writing or influences change between projects?Did your writing and recording process shift at all with more voices involved?
SD: Love Is a State of Mind was released in September of 2022 and we recorded Overexposure maybe six months later. It just took a while for the label to gather all the materials and set a release date, but I was recording pretty continuously in that time. Love is a State of Mind was all home recorded, and then we recorded some with Danny from CalicoLoco – it was all very homespun. Some of the songs were just demos that I recorded during the pandemic and it was just going to be raw, compared to my previous EPs, Deja Vu and Sleeping in the Dark, where I strove for a more professional sound. Overexposure was a bit of melding the two together. And I think Henry [Stoher] (Slow Pulp) and Keith [Douglas] were really good at capturing that idea amazingly. Keith was so professional when we were recording and then I worked with Henry via email, and he just has a gift for mixing things that sound both raw and so professional at the same time. I don’t know if it was a shift so much as a shift in how we recorded it. We recorded it all at once and I didn’t consciously think, like, ‘oh, I want to make a shoegaze record, or I want it to be grunge’. It’s just kind of how it turned out and evolved.
SR: Was there significance in revisiting the song, “Meet Me At The Park” a year or two after it was originally written? Does it sit differently with you now having worked on it twice?
SD: My friend Danny convinced me that this song has to be recorded with a full band. That first recording on Love is a State of Mind is something I just did real quick in my room. I appreciate both of the versions, but the full band version has so much life to it. The guy from Amplified Magazine said the demo version of “Meet Me At The Park” sounds like maybe I didn’t meet them at the park – then the full band version sounds like I met the person at the park [laughs]. That was definitely the simplest song I’ve ever written. It’s basically just a few chords, trying to be more hooky. I sometimes think about cognitive biases and psychology – there’s a thing called the mere exposure effect, which means the more you’re exposed to a certain stimulus, the more you just generally like it. And so applying that to songwriting, if you just repeat the same thing a lot, it’ll get more stuck in people’s heads. I’m not trying to like wield psychology [laughs], but it’s good to keep in mind.
SR: I find that psychological interpretation very interesting, it makes sense when it comes to melodies, but I can find it in your lyrics as well when you write about common struggles and the stimuli we get from them. In a way, that is another mere exposure effect, as you kind of highlight things that people experience day to day, building a personal attraction to your songs. This is brought out very well in the “Overexposure” music video.What were the ideas behind that video?
SD: I outsourced the music video to Kaity [Szymborski] who was super enthusiastic about making a video and she put her own spin on the meaning of overexposure. I love how she kind of parsed it down to a really mundane seeming detail, but it’s so relatable. If I was making the video, I might’ve gone for grander ideas or something, but it probably wouldn’t have hit as much as Kaity’s idea. And shout out to Lola’s Coney Island for letting us film there and being super nice and enthusiastic about wanting to be in the video.
SR: Does your own interpretation of the word ‘overexposure’ differ from Katie’s interpretation that is highlighted in the music video?
SD: I think it’s been hard to answer questions about the meaning of overexposure because I kind of channeled the song and wrote it in like 15 minutes. It felt really real and right and meaningful to write the lyrics and melody, but it’s strangely hard for me to put the meaning into prose. I wrote it more as a poem that is, in a way, rich with meaning but also it’s a song that I want the listener to feel, and interpret, on their own. It’s a different mindset and I try to make something really deeply relatable and also a little bit of amalgamation of experience, not just one detail of my life, but something that both resonates with me, but also with a potential audience.
SR: Since it’s been a few months since its release, what has it been like to play these songs live? I know you have a show coming up in Madison where you are only taking two cello players as opposed to your full band. Is there a formation that you feel brings out the songs better?
SD: They’re just totally different experiences. I played a strip down set with just me and Ryan the other day at a bar called Bernice’s and I was not expecting anything. I was thinking, ‘okay, we’re going to play and the people are just going to talk at the bar,’ but when we started playing, it was like a vortex that sucked the attention to the music. It was such a cool experience. But I think the main difference between full band and playing a stripped down set is that when with the full band, the lyrics sometimes get a little buried, but the spirit of the song really comes alive. Whereas when I’m playing stripped down, the lyrics really shine through and people can really hear each word and that’s really nice.
SR: Anything you have coming up that you are excited about?
SD: I’ve been recording an EP with an artist named Snow Ellet, which is a totally different process, just me and Snow Ellet to a click track. And then I’m trying to record an album of my earliest songs from when I was in my early twenties.
SR: Are you going to keep them as they are?
SD: I’m going to keep them as they are, but plan to just make the most of them. But yeah, my music from back then is not at all the same. It’s not worse, maybe, I don’t know [laughs], it’s got its own charm that’s just a little different.
Photo by Tracey Conoboy
Sick Day will be playing a full band set on August 10th at the Beat Kitchen along with All Weather Sports, dmb the etymology and Oyeme. Sick Day will also be headed to Madison, WI on September 13 to play the Snake on the Lake Festival (free of charge).
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo by Tracey Conoboy
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by Travis Harrington and Kameron Vann of Truth Club.
Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Truth Club released their critically acclaimed sophomore record Running From the Chase late last year, showing both individual and collective growth for a band revitalizing their creative process and collaborative instincts. Through dark interludes and commendable twist and turns, Running From the Chase is patient, building tension from restraint and release from introspection. It’s heavy, smart, fresh and fulfilling – a NC album through and through, embracing both a community and a band at the top of their game.
To accompanying their playlist, Travis shared a statement about how the songs came together;
“I’m pretty uninitiated when it comes to curating playlists and unfortunately am the kind of person who is on my phone in traffic searching for songs, but this was fun to put together! Kam and I are moving in with Yvonne right now, so we’re kind of scrambled. These are some songs we’ve been bumping around the house while lifting furniture and unpacking boxes. Good kinesis embedded within, lots of push and pull.”
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week, we have a collection of songs put together by Mark Allen Scott of villagerrr.
Scott began writing songs under the moniker villagerrr in 2022, taking his home-spun spirit through shifting collaborations and sonic directions through the years. Tear Your Heart Out, the latest full length release by the Columbus band has been occupying fan and critic lists alike since its arrival earlier this year, finding villagerrr in their most matured and solidified form yet. The band’s soft indie-rock tangents and Midwestern brushstrokes of vivid observations and unhurried pacing offer a spacious listening – finding intimacy in the mundane and an undeniable impression of home from afar.
Along with the playlist, Scott gave us a blurb about the songs he chose to include, sharing;
It’s just a song off of a handful of albums that sent me into obsessive music deep dives. I’d just listen to the albums all day and get deeper into the other albums and watch interviews and live performances. Read about them. Just get to see where the art was coming from and why they made it.
It’s difficult to find your footing after times of grieving – though condensing time like an accordion, capturing both the past and present into a full journey of cathartic healing feels so effortless at the hands of Noa Jamir. Last week, the New Orleans/Lafayette-based singer-songwriter shared a beautiful exploration of self worth on her debut full length album Cicada. Taking a two year hiatus, Jamir dropped out of her last semester of college as she went through a “dormant hell” of loneliness and depression. To reemerge from those dark moments as a beautiful new spirit, Cicada lets breezy tunes take the reigns as Jamir documents her personal experience of healing and the importance of holding onto every step.
Cicada plays to the soft-rock headbangers and pop song lamenters that live for the intimacy of heavy summer air. The album opener “These Walls” plays to the momentum of a slow burning anthem – swelling in a compressed state of confusion and frustration as Jamir tries to break down her self-constructed walls of what it is to love and to be loved. The country-adjacent “Want to Love” scratches that yallternative itch that is spreading around these days, with its atmospheric lap steel (Alan Howard) annunciating the tenderness of the track and the longing in Jamir’s lush vocal performance. The stand out, “Indebted” is a steady indie-rock burner, culminating Jamir’s rage and fortitude into a patient demeanor of confidence, singing, “He proved to me that I can survive anyone and anything” – joyous and defiant all in one.
Some of the most impactful moments on Cicada are also the most sonically exposed – sitting still as the words drip like warm honey over the sparse soundscapes. “Oh I know it’s comin / The rain, the sun, the flood of all the memories,” Jamir sings with a quiet whisper on “Nights”, as the chorus blooms with layered harmonies over a folky guitar. The song lingers with an intense beauty, giving space to those unwanted thoughts – not allowing Jamir to deny their existence. With the inclusion of two voice memos from close friends, we are given a rare glimpse into Jamir’s support system during those rough moments – personal, endearing and beautiful, a culmination of the project at hand. “Mariah’s Interlude” is a brief spoken piece, tending to the patience of self care. “Aidan’s Interlude” speaks, “it can be tempting to numb ourselves […] it’s just helpful for me to remind myself that when I’m feeling a lot, that is my superpower and that makes it possible for me to truly live” – and to Aidan’s credit, Cicada feels to embody that statement.
Cicada moves at its own accord, and that’s okay. As a compositional album alone, the dynamic shifts, deliberate pacing and endearing hooks create a charming and enticing listen that runs no longer than 25 minutes. But what makes Jamir’s writing so special are the dualities that often are overlooked in times of struggle are now given a their own voice. “I realized what this was for me / A way out of my own company,” she sings on the aforementioned “Want to Love.” What feels like a harsh drive down memory lane isn’t taken as regret or mourning, but rather the importance of recognition and growth that got Jamir to where she is now.
Not that long ago, New York was once a vibrant home for independent artists, musicians and creatives alike – all trying to find their place within a community of sustainability and support. With plenty of independent venues, promotors and journalists doing the hands-on work, the means to share your art were vast and obtainable. But over the years, the accesability to express yourself became more difficult, as corporations like Live Nation and Spotify cornered the market, show spaces and venues shut down and journalism became blocked behind paywalls, eventually leading to a large cultural and financial gap separating who is able to participate.
Temporary State University is a new non-profit organization that is dedicated to training the next generation of New Yorkers to throw their own cultural events. With an emphasis on educating and organizing through three workshops this fall, TSU will teach you how to plan, organize and execute a show in a fun, fair and safe way for all.
As they gear up for these workshops, TSU will be hosting the Temporary Day Party, their big fundraising drive this Saturday, June 29 in Ridgewood, NY. As an all day event, the Temporary Day Party will consist of a 12 hour, 15 act show of some of New York’s best musicians, a handful of local vendors, as well as a preview to the full workshops.
Jordan Michael is the founder and Director of TSU. Growing up in the show world, as well as once running the NY Showpaper, Jordan has witnessed a change of the recourses, accountability and access to safe spaces in New York over the years. With the help of Hannah Pruzinksky (GUNK, h. pruz, Sister.) and Ceci Sturman (GUNK, Sister.), TSU is building up their student body of new stakeholders and leaders to rebuild that once vibrant community.
We recently had a chat with Jordan to discuss the organization, talking about the needed public shift towards redefining a venue, sharing knowledge through workshops and the overall goal for Temporary State University in the NY community and beyond.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity
Ugly Hug: Before we talk about this project, what is your background in the New York community and where did you get the idea to start TSU?
Jordan Michael: I grew up working doors and bar, booking shows, and sometimes doing sound at venues. I also had a bunch of sound equipment that I acquired and started renting out to people. I grew up in a very vibrant community of DIY spaces, independent promoters and bands that were homeless and just toured nationally. At the time, America had such a vibrant community of DIY venues and independent media that you could kind of just dedicate yourself to touring and playing shows in this network, creating a ladder that you could climb to build a career for yourself. Now that ladder, through a million different cuts, has fallen apart. And then the pandemic happened and it just felt like the long aging process brought out the natural death of the community I grew up in. When I started to see that there are these 23 year old kids who just moved to New York that have no connection to the community and who need the help – like the kids who want to do a DIY show under a bridge in industrial Queens – I want them to have a PA system to make it happen.
UH: You have been using a very unique social campaign that documents empty spaces with the words, “there can be a show here”. What is TSU’s approach to redefining these public places that wouldn’t typically be considered a venue?
JM: Public spaces are for the public and we are the public. A show is just a gathering of people in the same space, paying attention to the same thing. You can do that anywhere. When I saw the DIY community of our teens kind of die off, a lot of it was geared towards the closure of spaces and venues. I loved so many of those spaces, and it’s not that I don’t mourn their disappearance, but it highlights the fact that a lot of the problem is individual people with a lot of consolidated power. If bands email me because they don’t have a place to play, that’s a bad sign. You shouldn’t rely on somebody else to express yourself and you shouldn’t rely on small businesses to express yourself. I’m not against doing shows at venues, most shows happen in venues, but I intentionally want to get people out of the mentality that if something doesn’t happen at 8 P.M. at a bar then it can’t happen at all.
UH: The Temporary Day Party is going to be held at a place called Party Connection in Ridgewood, NY. What kind of space is that?
JM: In cities like New York where apartments are so small, there are a lot of places where you can rent out one of these halls as like a community living room. When planning this event I didn’t want to do it in a venue, I wanted to do it in a place that theoretically you could do a show in and show people how you take a place that isn’t a venue and turn it into one for the night.
UH: A 12 hour show is pretty epic, and I can only imagine the strategy and the energy that went into planning it. How did you approach such a task?
JM: I’m currently writing a whole zine about how you herd all the cats involved in a three person bill – I can’t even get into the logistics of doing it with a twelve hour show. You come up with a bunch of people you ask to play, you figure out when they can do it, you compile a list of all the different slots people can play, and then you just puzzle it together. You also just have to figure out what instruments people are going to play and the equipment you need. Then you announce it and hope people show up.
UH:You also plan to give a small preview of the workshops that TSU will be hosting this upcoming fall at the day party. What kinds of topics will the full workshops go over as you get people started and trained to host their own events?
JM: The workshops at the event will just give people a sense of what we are teaching and how we’re going to be teaching them. We will have a guest speaker that I will ask some questions and then the audience will have the chance to ask questions as well. But the full workshops are broken up into three sections. The first section is curating the show – when you have an idea for a show and you have all the bands, a venue and a date picked out. The second workshop is pre-production and promotion, which is getting ready for the show, making sure you have everything you need and you’re doing all of the things you need to do leading up. Then the final workshop is the day of the show, making sure nothing bad happens and dealing with something bad happening so it doesn’t become something horrible happening. We will also soon be releasing guidebooks on each subject that will be available on our website for free. It’s basically just a more condensed written version of what we’re going over at these workshops. They are meant to be picked up and read in one sitting to feel like you get a sense of what it is we are sharing.
UH: As you run these workshops in New York, what do you hope to see expand to other communities as you share these tutorials to the wide public?
JM: I have no ambition to expand whatsoever. I don’t even want to keep doing this project in a few years. The dream is total obsolescence. If this is just something that is common knowledge and people just know how to do it, then it doesn’t necessarily need to be taught to them. And if tons of different people are putting together different collectives to share resources to do shows, then this doesn’t need to exist and I can quit. That’s the dream.
You can find various ways in which to help TSU reach their goal here, including a monthly contribution, donating sound equipment or storage spaces and even professional insurance services. You can now pre-register for the official TSU workshops. Visit their website for more information.
Every Friday, a staff member at the ugly hug curates a list of their five favorite new(ish) releases to share with us all. This week, our writer, poet and member of newly formed punk group Big Garden, Autumn, shares with us “five Hot Hot Steamin’ Blazin’ Brand-Spankin-New Tracks to Sizzle onto your table and into your heart (or liver)”
“Rock & Roller Girl” by Liquid Images
Liquid Images is the tour de force of Cleveland rock n roll veterans Marty Brass (Ma Holos, Red Devil Ryders, Marty Brass & the Lavender Jets) and Richard Hamilton (musician, author, founder of Quality Time Records in 2014). “Rock & Roller Girl” comes from the duo’s debut album – which, in true punk style, packs seven songs into less than 18 minutes. This snack-sized smorgasbord was recorded in Downey, California over the course of 2021 to 2023, finally unleashed unto the eager masses earlier this year in January. It sounds like a record leisurely recorded by two friends who know what they’re doing, and it rocks.
Liquid Images’ self-titled album is a jammy, groovy departure from Brass and Hamilton’s earlier, (mostly) retired project, Pig Flayer (which is heavy and nasty and absolutely rules, if you can get your hands on one of the few remaining ‘45s). All seven tracks are jammy revelations you can sink your teeth into and shake your ass to, both, but “Rock & Roller Girl” stands out as the representative track of the whole lot, energetically.
Hamilton’s dreamy yet heavy-hitting vocal style oozes with honed punk power that’s been marble-chiseled by time and experience into a pied piper rally cry that’ll make a believer outta you yet, you silly stuck-in-your-ways sensible shoegaze softies. Get freaky and give this one a spin (and thank me later).
“Spend It All” by The Oystermen
Don’t let the whole alternative-teen-groupie-Thorazine-lapsang-souchong look fool you. This writer gets down to a good ole stompin’ bluegrass hootenenay hit from time to time – but it has to be pretty damn good to pull me away from my regularly scheduled brooding cuppa the aforementioned lapsang souchong (I know who I am). “Spend It All” by Brooklyn’s newest bluegrass super-force is that good.
This red-hot track just dropped a few weeks ago, and lyrically, it’s a masterpiece. Frontman Stanley holds it down and pushes it up with jaunty harmonica and driving acoustic guitar, but more than his lively, boot-stompin’ delivery, it’s his words that walk home with you after the show’s over. The chorus rips in with the proverb, “Get a whole lotta money, spend it all havin’ a good time.” This is the new national anthem, or at least the song of the summer. “Stay out all night listenin’ to the rest of the album, it’s gonna be a blast. Go back home tomorrow mornin’, and then you can crash. Doctor said I should count some sheep, I said ‘Whaddo I look like, Little Bo Peep?’ C’mon listen to the rest of the album.” *harmonica solo* Finally, a track you and your dad’s friends can all get down to.
…and The Oystermen’s trumpet player deserves his own write-up. Every band in New York that’s been looking for a trumpeter is going to writhe and lament when they hear this one.
“MASS APPEAL” by Nat Cherry and Braxtino
This dark, toothy groove dropped just two weeks ago, and I’ve already spun it at least 50 times. Longtime punk rocker Nat Cherry and soulful guitar god Braxton (Smith Taylor, Black Lazarus) joined forces for a soon-to-be cult classic track that, frankly, doesn’t look like any of the tunes either of them have put out before now.
“MASS APPEAL” is for folks who discovered Nico’s “Chelsea Girls” in their teens, graduated to the realm of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nina Hagen in their twenties, and are now looking for what’s next. Your search is over, lovers. Nat Cherry’s deep, round, lilting drone pulls the trip forward through heavy synth and a brick-laying drum beat. Braxton brings the smooth polished vocals in just the right places, but those places are few. No one is over-singing or over-performing here, and that’s what makes this track so deliriously cool. It hits because it hits, and no one is doing backflips to catch your attention. They don’t have to.
Hopefully, “MASS APPEAL” is the scintillating promise of more to come from this Brooklyn-based duo. My loved ones are becoming strangers as the mouth-foaming jones for a full EP ravages my body (please god more).
“G Bus” by Tired Horses
The single, “G Bus,” dropped in 2023, and Tired Horses edged their loyal following of jazz-horny clean cut acid freaks with a live album recorded at Hidden Fortress in Philly. Now, it’s 2024 and we’re ready to climax. Give us the manna from heaven, Steely Dan.
This freewheelin’ psychedelic fantasia of acid jazz is just what the doctor ordered in two ways: It’s the antidote to the singer-songwriter-mania that’s oversaturated the New York music scene since the pandemic, and listening to it will make you live forever. Whether folks know about it or not, Tired Horses is already a supergroup – but ultra-niche-lovin’ music heads (you know who you are) will want to pounce on this one now if they want to say they knew about the horsies before they were big. Savant guitarist Cameron Criss (Ruby, Buga, the Claire Ozmun Band), saxophonist Mike Talento, bassist Alex Tvaroch, Jack Gruber on keys, and Szecso Szendrody on drums fill a space and keep it filled so effortlessly that you won’t even miss a singer.
Tired Horses did something truly special with “G Bus” by capturing that delicious live sound without it going flat. All those groovy layers are preserved in amber – and for New York groovers who wanna shake some action in-person, the band has a residency at Troost bar in Greenpoint. They play a totally original set on the first Monday of every month and there’s no door fee.
“What Money?” by Crystal Egg
Curtis Godino makes the organ sexy. “Organ” as in the instrument, aka the cooler older sister of the piano. This Nashville band hit the stage for the first time in April 2023, but Crystal Egg is already dripping with style. “What Money?” is the group’s only recorded track on music streaming platforms (and it just dropped in April) but they already landed a spot opening for the Lemon Twigs on their most recent tour a few months ago. Also, the anti-capitalist canticle of “What Money?” effortlessly captures the rage-gut-punch of wanting to be a part of something awesome but getting disenfranchised with a door fee and, gasp, being broke.
Dream-queen Jess McFarland’s avant-garde bohemian vocals melds with futuristic flair from Godino’s one-of-a-kind synth stylings for what can only be described as the intersection of poetry and chaos. There really aren’t any other bands to compare Crystal Egg to, and what a feat. They could quit now and already be a legend. But, the hypersonic life force behind their tunes and off-stage creative tsunami (Godino runs Drippy Eye Projections and a gag toy company called Jester Trading Co., and McFarland is a master seamstress and clothing designer) suggests that there’s much, much more to come from these Nashville newcomers.
Every Friday, a staff member at the ugly hug curates a list of their five favorite new(ish) releases to share with us all. This week, our writer Nikki (Monsters in Hiding), put together a list of apocalyptical hugs, shoegaze stunners and heartfelt folk tunes to take into the weekend.
“everything to die for” by mui zyu
From a Featured interview, to a Guest List playlist, to my Hi-5 this week, Mui Zyu is a favorite on The Ugly Hug, and for good reason. At first listen, the dissonant melody notes (sharped 4th for music theory nerds) in the chorus are unsettlingly interesting, and then they become addictive. After singing “we’ve got everything to die for”, mui zyu goes on with “thank god if you want to” which seems to capture the essence of this song and its place within her new album as what might be the most melancholy sounding but hopeful track. To me, it is a reminder that through our existential earthling nihilism, disappointment, rejection, we still have so much to live for, especially the people who keep us here. Thank you Shea for showing me this song.
“falling down” by Current Joys
Many of us know Current Joys (Nick Rattigan) from his harmonic tremolo and super reverb sounds in the popular tracks “Blondie” and “Kids” from his older albums. But if you haven’t listened to his new music, you might be in for a treat if you like the old sound, PLUS a heavy dose of emo screams over digital modulations and breakbeats. It’s like Current Joys experimented, found a new sound, and couldn’t get enough of making songs with it. I’ve included the song I think demonstrates this, and my favorite off his new album LOVE+POP Pt 2 – “falling down”. The melodic singing ends at “These capitalistic pigs have destroyed the planet”, and then half of the song rides out with his screams “it’s all my fault”. Nick Rattigan doesn’t hold back and I’m so here for it. Emotional summer banger for sure.
“jsuk” by Saturnalias
I’m very excited to expose you to Saturnalias if you don’t know them – a band of wonderful humans and musicians based in my NC hometown. It was hard to pick a track of their new album “Bugfest”, but the ebbs in intensity and sampled sounds in “jsuk” are just too cool. I notice something different from the various layers and switch ups every time I listen. Singing drummer, Isa belts “Oh I need this” at the end of the bridge, feeling like an attempt to hold onto something comforting through chaos. If you like post-punk and shoegaze, I’m pleased to introduce you to the music of Saturnalias.
“Guardian” by Memorial (ft. Lomelda)
The songwriting in this one bleeds sincerity. From my interpretation, it paints the very real human experience of wanting to help others; but when we think we are responsible (a “guardian”) for their emotions, we neglect our own needs and can be left with resentment that only we ourselves can account for. Lomelda comes in on the second verse, sharing her classic slow vocal runs, which carry over so well when their two joined voices build and weave in and out over brushed drums. It’s a great shower song.
“Teeth” by Sour Worm
Sour Worm deviates from the digital, instrumental heavy songs released last year with this banger. Using what sounds like acoustic instruments this time, including a bold walking, clonking bass, this track is also lyric focused. It’s weird in all the best ways. Some elements are reminiscent of Modest Mouse and Alex G, like the rhythmic swing, violin solo, and descriptive word choices. It lyrically ends with an interesting final battling dichotomy to dissect – “It’s like pulling teeth trying to keep them [teeth] in my mouth.”
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