Endswell and Excuse Me, Who Are You? – Twins in Wisconsin Screamo

Thumbs Up Records

Something they don’t tell you about music writing is how often you wind up saying the same thing. I try not to use the same phrase multiple times within one article, but I’ve absolutely written the word “propulsive” more than any normal person should. As a writer, though, you have a box of tools, some of which you break out more often than others. 

I suppose a good writer would learn to recognize those tropes and avoid them, but me? I lean into them. Some descriptors are just objectively true, no matter how cliched they sound. Shoegaze music is dreamy. Pop-punk music is sunny. Who am I to pan through a thesaurus to find a synonym when common parlance is right there? Would I rather get my point across easily, or do I want to make my audience Google a word just so I can sound smart while still saying the same thing?

My point is I know my own writing style well enough to know what words I gravitate towards. Especially when you focus on a genre of music as specific as emo, there are only so many words you can use to talk about these sounds.

Despite its odd time signatures and youthful vigor, emo music is often very predictable. This is a genre that cribs from itself constantly. There’s a pantheon of great artists that most younger artists revere, and lots of the current music (both good and bad) stems directly from that inspiration and reinterpretation. Most of the time, you know where an emo song is going before it even gets there. You know the turmoil; you grow to expect the instrumentation. After long enough, you might even become immune to the zany pop culture clips that bands deploy to punctuate a particularly sick riff. If I’m being honest with myself, I have an insatiable appetite for this shit. And that’s why I’m here.

This predictability is also what makes it so exhilarating when a band does something unexpected within this format. 

I’ll admit, this was a lot of bullshit lead-up to say that “Heart Container,” the first official song from the screamo project Endswell, is a phenomenal piece of music. It’s a track that mixes emo and post-hardcore in pretty equal measure and also makes me want to bust out every word that I tend to reach for when talking about this genre. 

The track opens with an iconic Ocarina of Time soundbite as we hear our old, annoying friend Navi shout a phrase every 90s kid and Zelda fan knows all too well, “HEY! LISTEN!” Immediately after this Pavlovian call to attention, a snappy drum beat cracks through the song. Seconds later, a tappy guitar joins in with fractal, spiky sounds straight out of the math rock playbook. 

For a moment, I can hear ripples of all my favorite late-2000s post-hardcore bands. Endswell sound like a group whose demo I would find while cruising MySpace, then see signed to Sumerian or Equal Vision a couple of years down the line. 

When I think about seeing this song performed live, I imagine shouting along to the strained Stars Hollow-esque screams over the needly guitarwork and ear-shattering bass drops. In an alternate timeline, I could practically see myself listening to this song over my blown-out Honda Civic’s speakers slotted between Blessthefall and the demo for Skies of December. 

(Editors Note: if you understood that last reference, please message me immediately, I need someone to bond with over Skies of December)

Adjacent to the awesome progressive post-hardcore screamo of Endswell is a Midwest emo band called Excuse Me, Who Are You?. The two projects share members, resulting in a Venn diagram of sounds that overlaps a decent amount, but still retains some key distinctions that make each project unique. 

Both of these bands are based out of Madison, Wisconsin, a state that, between Bug Moment, Tiny Voices, Honey Creek, and Barely Civil, seems to be massively exciting right now. At the epicenter of this upper-Midwest emo pop-off is Thumbs Up Records, a small-run DIY label that’s been around since 2020 and touts itself as the “Home of the Riff Mafia.” 

Technically, Excuse Me, Who Are You, and Tiny Voices are the only bands on that above list actually signed to the label. With Endswell joining their ranks this February (and new music teased for later in the year), it seems like a good time to put all your DIY stocks in Thumbs Up Records. 

But back to the music of EMWAY, the other, slightly more emo side of the Endswell coin. The band only has four songs out right now (technically five if you count a standalone rendition of the EP’s closing track), but essentially, the band’s entire body of work exists in full on the 12-and-a-half minute About That Beer I Owed Ya. The Half-Life samples sprinkled throughout the EP might be easy to write off as arbitrary overly compressed soundbites, but to a gamer-ass dork like myself, when I first fired up the release and heard “Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman,” a jolt of decade-old nostalgia shot through my body like Frankenstein. 

The first song, “They’re Waiting For You Gordon,” even features guest vocals from Maxwell Culver of Endswell, pushing the two projects together to the point where they fuse into one. The band lets the tail end of the opening monologue from Half-Life 2 play out as the instrumental slowly brings things up to speed for a screamo rant over peppy guitar plucks that eventually snap into place and lash out in a coordinated attack with the other instruments. 

The middle two songs, “Chicken Cock” and “Urine Luck,” obviously don’t take themselves too seriously but tout equally impressive emo instrumentation, dramatic screams, and progressive hardcore breakdowns. At one point, I remember hearing the classic “Emo WOO!” and opening my Spotify app to grab a screenshot. I sat there for a moment staring at my screen as I took in the nostalgic Polaroid-like album art perched above the words “Urine Luck” and “Excuse Me, Who Are You?” I texted my partner a screenshot saying, “I think I found the most emo song/band/album art combination of all time.”

Emo is a genre rife with tropes and cliches. Its very name is a diminutive, dismissive short-hand almost meant to read “don’t take this seriously.” But I do take this seriously, and so does Excuse Me, Who Are You? The band uses video game samples and goofy song titles yet still displays real feelings and *clears throat* emotions throughout their four given tracks. The presentation may turn some away, but the music scratches a very real itch for me and arrives at a very earnest place. 

By the time the EP’s killer final track rolls around, I often find myself ready to revisit Endswell. This results in an endless feedback loop, where I remain (willingly) stranded in the same Wisconsin basement with these two bands. I just want to sit there, embedded in the crowd, sipping my beer and watching these musicians build off each other until the roads are clear enough for all of us to get home safely. We might be snowed in with these members of the Riff Mafia, but it’s nice. We have cold beer and sick tunes. Why would you wanna go anywhere else?

Flycatcher – Stunt | EP Review

MEMORY MUSIC

Flycatcher’s newest release, Stunt, shows an emo band that’s comfortable playing with fire (i.e., melodic pop-punk) while exploring sounds and emotions still distinctly theirs. Their explosive, sharp drums provide a canvas for the band to explore nostalgia, yearning, and real feelings without ever swerving into cheeseball territory. This is a pop-punk band for 2023.

With Stunt, Flycatcher summons the ghosts of a dozen early-2000s rock predecessors and holds court with them in a modern context. For a brief second in the chorus of “Always Selfish,” I caught a whiff of the Foo Fighters’ classic “Everlong” in frontman Greg Pease’s vocal down-turn over piecey guitars. But more often, his melodic singing makes me wistful for anthemic pop-punk acts like The Starting Line or even 2010s British indie like The Kooks. Regardless, there’s something roundly nostalgic about his singing that’s both welcome and well-executed. That’s not to say Flycatcher are stuck in the past: they experiment with a variety of guitar tones that feel mostly contemporary. 

The opening track, “Games,” introduces Stunt with choppy strums that open up by the time the choruses roll around. On “Rust,” the EP’s loudest song, prominent bass carves a path for the chorus’ grungy power chords. But on the final track, “Quitter,” the band’s lead guitar acquiesces to full-on nostalgia. They kick the song off with hazy, plucked guitar notes that feel like they’re straight from the early 2000s but remain grounded in pounding drums that feel like they’re straight from the present-day East Coast scene. 

Their introspective lyrics touch on self-reflection without overindulging. EP standout “Sodas in the Freezer” precedes the first chorus with the lyrics “So I’ll keep leaving sodas in the freezer / Hanging clothes out in the rain,” admitting the futility of self-pity. It’s not easy to address real emotions in a way that’s both sincere and salient, but on Stunt, Flycatcher—just like the best of their pop-punk predecessors—have accomplished it.

---

Katie Wojciechowski is a music writer and karaoke superstar in Austin, Texas. She is from there, but between 2010 and now, also lived in Lubbock, TX, Portland, OR, and a camper. Her life is a movie in which her bearded dragon Pancake is the star. You can check out her Substack here and some of her other writing here. She’s writing a book about growing up alongside her favorite band, Paramore.

Mystic 100's – On a Micro Diet | Album Review

SELF-RELEASED

How do you know when an artist has rebranded or simply taken a step that is a natural evolution in their journey? It can be hard to tell. When Vampire Weekend put out Father of the Bride, they rebranded their image and, somewhat unsuccessfully, their sound. It was their first album to not feature founding member Rostam Batmanglij, and the group decided to shift from their Ivy League coolness to a looser, crunchier, and dare I say, vibier outlook that was expressed in both their sonic and visual presentations. Good on them for trying something different, but the results were underwhelming because their new direction seemed so calculated and forced.

This is not the case for Mystic 100’s, the Olympia, Washington band formerly known as Milk Music. While they have undergone a name change, the band’s new (or should I say debut?) album, On a Micro Diet, feels like a natural next step for the group. Both Milk Music and Mystic 100’s worship the guitar, but the ways they practice their devotion are different. Milk Music’s sound was hard-charging riffs and rapid solos in the vein of Dinosaur Jr, while Mystic 100’s take on a much more exploratory sound that is elongated, jammy, and improvised at times. To put it in the dumbest way I can think, Milk Music is the bouillon cube, condensed and pungent, and Mystic 100’s are the broth, expansive and warm.

On a Micro Diet is a long album, spanning seventy-five minutes over nine songs, but it never feels like it overstays its welcome. I’ve listened to the album on walks with my dog, while I was cleaning the kitchen, chilling in the hot tub, and even at the gym, never once feeling as though the durations of the songs were testing my willpower. In fact, it was the loose and almost unstructured feel of the music that kept pulling me back. When I wasn’t listening, I often found myself humming bits of melodies as I went about my daily tasks. These timestamps grounded me each time I returned for another listen, allowing me to find new details in the band’s wanderings.

Mystic 100’s do an excellent job of mixing things up, something that is not always guaranteed in this realm of music. “Message from Lonnie” is a mid-tempo expression of love that grooves like waves lapping against the beach at sunset and perfectly showcases Alex Coxen’s melodic soloing. The nearly twenty-minute centerpiece “Have You Ever Chased a Lightbeam?” is just begging to be played at this year’s Desert Daze festival. The song requires patience as it shifts back and forth from a “Cortez the Killer”-style seance limbo state of guitar feedback, but is rewarding if you are willing to trust the band. Amidst all of the sunburnt daydreaming, you can still see traces of their former selves in “Windowpane,” a straight-ahead strummer that acts as a moment of clarity before descending further into madness.

This is who Mystic 100’s was born to be. By shedding their Milk Music skin, they have given themselves the freedom to explore their interests fearlessly. If you are willing to let go of your inhibitions, you will find something to enjoy in On a Micro Diet. 

---

Connor lives in Emeryville with his partner and their cat and dog, Toni and Hachi. Connor is a student at San Francisco State University and is working toward becoming a community college professor. When he isn’t listening to music or writing about killer riffs, Connor is obsessing over coffee and sandwiches.

The New Pornographers – Continue As A Guest | Album Review

It’s been 23 years since The New Pornographers’ breakout debut Mass Romantic in 2000. Since then, the band has earned their right to be called one of indie rock’s greatest supergroups… “Supergroup,” in this case, means a group of multiple knockout singer-songwriters who have years of output, either on their own or as a part of side projects, but still get together every few years to collaborate. Think of Sleater-Kinney (Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker) or Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Lee Ranaldo). The influential and iconic sounds of these bands would not have been possible without the creative input of each songwriter.

Spearheaded by A.C. Newman and Neko Case, The New Pornographers have achieved indie rock canon across all eight of their albums up to this point. Their most notable tenure was released on the legendary Matador Records before moving to Anti- in 2017. That year’s Whiteout Conditions was their first without founding member and the trifecta-completing Dan Bejar, who is most well known for leading the band Destroyer. Despite his absence, the band proved they could still release one of their best albums yet under a new permutation. That formula was shown to be inconsistent with the 2019 follow-up In The Morse Code Of Brakelights, their weakest crop of tunes all around. Apart from the outlier hit “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile,” the album featured a general lack of energy and immediacy that was a hallmark of their previous albums.

Continue As A Guest is the band’s ninth LP and their debut for Merge Records. This label feels like a natural home for The New Pornographers; Merge has shared many artists with Matador over the years and boasts just as iconic of a back catalog. Newman and Case also dug into the archives and have worked in some unreleased Bejar material, which appears as the lead single and album opener “Really Really Light.” The track feels like a New Pornographers family reunion, containing fragments that date back to the Brill Bruisers days and very well could have sat comfortably in its tracklist. On the whole, Continue As A Guest is a notable improvement on its predecessor but still exists in a more low-key presentation, leaving behind the up-tempo power-pop that defined their most celebrated works.

In exchange, the band locks into some surprisingly groovy cuts, like “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” where Newman and Case share vocals on one of the most unique lyrical subjects for a Pornos tune in a long while. “Now you’re clearing the room just like Pontius Pilate when he showed all his home movies. All of his friends yelling, ‘Pilate, too soon!’” It’s sort of the band’s exploration of oblivious ego like Ben Folds Five’s “Steven’s Last Night In Town” or Ted Leo’s “The Little Smug Supper Club.”

Just as danceable, the song “Angelcover” is a borderline disco biscuit. The New Pornographers are no strangers to electronic elements– they’ve been incorporating strong keyboard lines into their songs on every album –but this might be the danciest they’ve ever gotten. The band muses, “Melody ain’t got nothing on the delivery,” but luckily, on this track, they’ve got a large dosage of both. Additionally, the title track, “Continue As A Guest,” is backed with a tasteful horn section that blissfully sways into the album’s second half.

While A.C. Newman is the primary vocalist, Neko Case compliments him as she always does on his tunes, but she also continues the tradition of leading a few of her own. Case’s “Crash Years” from 2009’s Together is my all-time favorite song in the band’s discography. Unfortunately, this time around, Case’s contributions are the weakest moments across the tracklist. The batch starts with “Cat and Mouse With the Light,” an underwhelming ballad that may have been better suited for a solo album. Case, who generally is an extremely bright lyricist and vocalist, completely misses in both categories on “Marie and the Undersea” in the second half of the album. “Marie, as the undersea calls out your name. Next thing you know, you’re flicking your cigarette out the window.” This song doesn’t strongly evoke the character, who’s presented in the middle of a crop of mermaidian clichés. It feels like she’s oddly playing below her strengths, and these moments only slow down the pace of the album.

For longtime fans, there’s still a handful of moments like “Really Really Light” that unmistakably fall into the band’s classic sound. “Bottle Episodes” could have come right out of the Challengers album with its focus on acoustic-based chamber-pop, with every member of the band clearly audible in the group vocals and strong instrumental performance. Newman warns, “when you’re dancing with the Devil, you don’t get to pick the song they play.” The album’s closer, “Wish Automatic Suite,” employs the same compositional techniques, with a melancholic tone shift at the end that’s expertly transitioned into from the strong refrains before it.

Both “Last and Beautiful” and “Firework In The Falling Snow” are the second to last songs in their respective halves of the album, which coincidentally seem to be Continue As A Guest’s dead zones. The two most forgettable songs here with nothing standout to latch onto, but also nothing too troubling to criticize. This effect is truly the Achilles heel of …Brakelights, but thankfully only carries over in a small way across the runtime of Guest.

I don’t necessarily think The New Pornographers’ best days are behind them, especially since the highlights of this album, like “Pontius Pilate…” or the title track, are genuinely great songs. Newman and Case are songwriting veterans, and it would be foolish to assume their muses are totally fading. Continue As A Guest just happens to be a bit of a mixed bag. The moments where they’re stepping outside their musical comfort zone, to mostly pleasurable results, sound a little inconsistent paired with the more typical sounding tracks. The album advert describes it as “10 new, explosive, genre-defying earworms.” While I can’t dispute the descriptor that these songs are new, not everything is explosive, and in those less powerful moments, the earworms are not always to be found. At the very least, it makes it more interesting in some respects than their last effort. With Continue As A Guest, I’ll still continue as a fan.

---

Logan Archer Mounts once almost got kicked out of Warped Tour for doing the Disturbed scream during a band’s acoustic set. He currently lives in Rolling Meadows, IL, but tells everyone he lives in Palatine.

The Best of Q1 2023

A couple of years ago, I challenged myself to stay up on new music through monthly collections of my favorite releases. That was a fun exercise but proved to be exhausting and a little redundant as the months wore on. Last year, I decided to scale things back to quarterly write-ups posted every three months, which felt like a much better cadence to discuss my favorite albums throughout the year.

Early in 2023, I put out a call for guest writers, and the response was more heartening and overwhelming than I ever could have expected. Within the space of a week, the Swim Into The Sound “staff” quadrupled to almost two dozen writers, meaning the blog has been busier and more energized than ever before. We’ve been putting out reviews more regularly and publishing at least one article a week, oftentimes more. It means we’ve been able to launch fun new initiatives like Hater’s Delight, and it’s given me more time to be intentional and thoughtful with my own writing. Most relevant to this article, this influx of new writers also means we can spread the love even further when it comes to these quarterly roundups.

Instead of just me talking about the (mostly emo) records I’ve been enjoying throughout the first few months of the year, I decided it made more sense to turn this over to our newly-bolstered staff to get a diverse spread of opinions and musical recommendations. What follows is each writer talking about their favorite album released in the first quarter of the year, with just one paragraph or two devoted to spreading the word about the music they can’t stop listening to. I hope this roundup gives you something new to listen to and love, I know it already has done so for me. 

---

Black Belt Eagle Scout – The Land, The Water, The Sky

Saddle Creek

In a Q1 where some of my other favorite releases (Paramore, Caroline Polachek) have been relatively short (and full of singles I’d already heard!), this Black Belt Eagle Scout record has refreshed me with its expansiveness. Many of the twelve tracks meander past the 4-minute mark, encouraging the listener to hang out and explore. It’s been such a perfect album to put on at night when I’m chasing some elusive peace of mind—Katherine Paul’s voice is atmospheric, yet warm, and on songs like “Salmon Stinta” and the album’s lead single, “Don’t Give Up,” she even borders on meditative. The record’s not all softness, though; the drums and guitars of The Land, The Water, The Sky ground the songs and give them an urgency I hadn’t necessarily noticed from Black Belt Eagle Scout in the past. Specifically, the guitars’ spacious reverb gives the record a fun rock flavor without ever losing that crucial sense of serenity (or, at least, contemplation). My favorite track is “Understanding,” which is also the most rock-y track and sounds a bit like what would happen if Cat Power drank a few Red Bulls. I’ve found The Land, The Water, The Sky extremely easy to love and easy to listen to a LOT—it’s a beautiful place to retreat and linger a while. 

Katie Wojciechowski – @ktewoj

Dougie Poole – Rainbow Wheel of Death

Warf Cat Records

Rainbow Wheel of Death is the kind of record that reminds me why I love country music so much. This album is full of genius, with something for everyone tucked inside. Lyrics about waking up crying, oceans split in two, holding white lilies on the megabus. Collage album art that features Karl Marx. Poole’s voice is like salted caramel, rich and mellow on every track. The jaunty music injects feel-good rhythm into a nonetheless starkly tragic record; it salutes traditional country music while creating brand new formulations to thrilling effect. There are several perfect songs. The insanely catchy riff from “Beth David Cemetery.” The heartbreakingly tender lap steel guitar on the harrowing “Nothing in This World Can Make Me Smile.” The record includes my current contender for song of the year, “High School Gym,” which departs from the twangy country sound of the rest of the album, using electric keyboards and uptempo percussion to create a retro synthy energy. The upbeat sound belies the sadness in the lyrics; Poole describes a recurring dream in which he encounters all his departed loved ones–grandfathers, friends–in the stands of a gymnasium, asking him, “can’t you turn back time… so we can roll the ol’ dice again / oh, the house always wins.” This record is one of the most stirring and tender documents of grief and one of the year’s best releases so far.

Elizabeth – @OneFeIISwoop

Lonnie Holley - Oh Me Oh My

Jagjaguwar

I originally planned to write about my continuing admiration for Xiu Xiu’s haunting album Ignore Grief, but I found myself compelled to shine a light on Lonnie Holley’s powerful and poignant Oh Me Oh My instead. I was not familiar with Holley prior to this album and only checked this album out due to the folk art album artwork catching my eye. The second he began singing on the opening track, “Testing,” I knew I had stumbled upon something truly special. Holley’s voice sent chills through my body. He has the voice of a man who has lived through some of the heaviest hardships life can offer and shares his experiences through a voice, and lyrics, that bares it all with a certainty and understanding that can only come from being in the pits and living to grow another day. This album features the likes of Michael Stipe, Moor Mother, Sharon Van Etten, Jeff Parker, and Bon Iver, and not once do they outshine Holley’s mesmerizing performance and deeply moving prose. Oh Me Oh My deserves your time and attention. What Holley and co. have crafted is an important work that speaks to our current times by reflecting and grappling with a painful past that, in many ways, persists today. This is a triumphant work that is sure to be revered as time goes on and more discover it.

Christian Perez – @mildblasphemy

Nick Webber – All The Nothing I Know

Self-released

Henri Nouwen once said something like, “if you try to write for a wide audience, no one pays attention. But if you try to write with one person in mind, a friend who needs to hear one truth, the rest of the world leans in to listen.” 

Nick Webber, on his new LP All The Nothing I Know, tells a very specific and niche story - his own pain and confusion of growing up in and growing out of a particular kind of rural religious fundamentalism. But in making a record only he could make, he ends up writing some of the most beautiful, moving (and accessible) indie folk I’ve ever heard. Standout tracks are the existential bops “Night Terror” and “Parabola” as well as the very earnest and sweet “I Tried To Warn You.” If you grew up religious, you’ll find a ton of Easter eggs to pick up (pun intended), but even if you’ve never set foot in a church, there’s a lot to love here.

Ben Sooy – @bensooy

Plain Speak – Calamity

Self-released

My partner judges me for watching guitar pedal videos on YouTube. I (mostly) never buy them, but watching them is a lovely comedown from the stress of everyday life. Last year, as she herself decompressed by watching the beautiful, heartbreaking Call the Midwife, I discovered the Calamity Drive, an extremely versatile pedal with a second footswitch labeled “GOOSE,” which does just that. I took advantage of a sale on the Calamity Drive over the long Thanksgiving holiday after seeing that one of Plain Speak’s guitarists, Dan Pechacek of Old Blood Noise Endeavors, had a hand in its design. After listening to their first album, Foundations, I fell in love with the band. They made me feel the best parts of nostalgia, listening to early and mid-2000s indie and emo albums while feeling vaguely heartbroken about something I can’t place now and couldn’t discern then. After wearing that album out, I wanted more Plain Speak but was nervous, given that Foundations came out almost a decade ago. Shortly thereafter, the band serendipitously announced Calamity. 

Plain Speak’s latest album again evokes mid-2000s alternative, indie, and emo rock (think a heavier Death Cab for Cutie or a more agnostic Manchester Orchestra), but with more angular guitar lines (“Better”) and somehow nerdier and more universal-yet-specific lyrics (“Career Day”). Knowing the care and passion that goes into designing and assembling the Calamity Drive, it’s unsurprising how precise, crisp, and clean Calamity sounds. I thought the way Calamity makes me feel, though, used to be irreplaceable. Instead, the album made me fall in love again with the meaningful music from my years of formative development. Despite coming out on March 10, Last.fm already reports that they are my top artist this year. I know it’s early, but I don’t see that changing. 

Joe Wasserman – @a_cuppajoe

saturdays at your place – always cloudy

No Sleep Records

saturdays at your place seemingly came out of nowhere in late 2022, announcing their signing to No Sleep Records alongside their sophomore release, always cloudy. Lead single “tarot cards” had listeners hooked instantly with, in true Midwest emo style, catchy lyrics about being awkward at parties. While topics like these make for tired tropes, especially in this particular vein of emo, the band does an excellent job at taking familiar sounds and making them their own. Every track on the release has a ton to offer both musically and lyrically, however, I can’t help myself from coming back to track six, “eat me alive.” Conjuring aspects of acts like Remo Drive and Hot Mulligan in their songwriting/vocal melodies, always cloudy offers more and more on every listen. s@yp is here to stay.

Brandon Cortez – @numetalrev

Stress Fractures – Stress Fractures

Acrobat Unstable and Old Press Records

“Stress Fractures” by the band Stress Fractures off the album Stress Fractures was my first real obsession of 2023. The titular lead single was released back in December and quickly instituted itself as a daily listen. Whenever I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to listen to? Stress Fractures. Whenever I wanted to find a song or two to queue up in between albums? Stress Fractures. Whenever I wanted some high-energy emo shit? Well, you get the idea. Then I heard an advance of the album, and it cast me under the same spell. I couldn’t help but gush about the record in a review, but here’s the short version. 

Stress Fractures is the brainchild of Martin Hacker-Mullen. You might recognize that name as one of the people behind Acrobat Unstable Records, playing bass in Clearbody, or half-a-dozen other ventures from across the Carolina DIY space. Stress Fractures, however, is Marty’s baby where they compose every note and exercise complete creative control. The record features Caden Clinton of Pool Kids on drums, a guest spot from Tyler Stodghill of Stars Hollow, and a guitar solo from Eric Smeal of Clearbody, but other than those contributions, this is entirely Marty’s record. The album itself is something of a “greatest hits” featuring re-recorded versions of songs from earlier EPs, splits, and demos dating all the way back to 2015. There’s some new stuff sprinkled in throughout there too, but this results in a strong showing where lots of these songs have been stress tested from years of performances and basement gigs. The whole thing clocks in at a blazing fast 25 minutes, making for an emo album that’s fun, bouncy, and breathless but also has some genuinely poetic things to say about evergreen topics of love, life, friends, connection, and self-betterment. 

Taylor Grimes – @GeorgeTaylorG

U2 – Songs Of Surrender

Island

In my short time at SITS, I’ve deep-dived on KISS, compared Andy Shauf to Burt Bacharach, and complained about pop artists trying to co-opt punk music. So I understand that me picking U2’s forty-track acoustic album for the best of Q1 might make it seem like I’m some Rolling Stone industry plant. Fear not, unless they let me run their list department, I’ll never be close. But I do want to make a case for how wonderful this release is. It’s not a cash grab, and it’s not U2 running out of ideas. It’s the companion piece to Bono’s tremendous memoir Surrender from last year. The book was 40 stories from his life interwoven with 40 songs from his band’s catalog. Songs Of Surrender is the soundtrack, although some songs have been taken out or added from the book’s picks. The stripped-down re-imaginings of classics like “Vertigo” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” prove that U2 is just as iconic as a pub band as they are stadium titans. Bono sings with passion, and the emotion can be felt through the speakers on ballads like “With Or Without You” and “One.” It’s a treat for diehards but likely intimidating for casual or even non-fans. I’d recommend just giving the songs you know a shot; perhaps these new arrangements will show you something you haven’t seen in the band before. If you’re looking for something not so corporate, the two new Ulthar albums for 20 Buck Spin, Anthronomicon and Helionomicon, are progressive-blackened-death-metal insanity and sound nothing like U2.

Logan Arcter Mounts – @VERTICALCOFFIN

100 gecs – 10,000 gecs

Dog Show/Atlantic

10,000 Gecs is the sonic equivalent of those strange TikToks I keep getting where the top half of the screen is Fidel Castro giving a political speech and the bottom half is someone playing Subway Surfers or making slime or some other weird sensory stimulation shit along those lines. There’s a lot going on in this album (and all of it within the running time of a sitcom episode), but all of it is in service of something that we could all get behind: having a good time living through the absurdity of our increasingly digital lives. I can’t really say if there’s any depth here lyrically, but who cares about depth when you have a hard-ass nu-metal riff or a ska-esque song about a frog on the floor doing a… keg stand? Did they sample the frog, or did he record his croaks live in the studio? 10,000 Gecs isn’t even remotely interested in answers- or questions, really- but damn, how could you not bob your head to everything on this record? It’s equal parts ridiculous and sincere; a heartfelt microwaved TV dinner that your best friend nuked for you in their barely functional microwave after a night out at the arcade. 10,000 gecs reminds us that the world is as gorgeous as a train wreck in slow motion, so we might as well have some fun art to soundtrack our impromptu exit through the windshield. 

Nickolas – @DJQuicknut