Queens of the Stone Age have released a trailer for their next record. I'm excited! Mark Ronson produced it, which might be really interesting. Here's today's tunes.
Helms Alee, "Revel!"
Could have sworn we had Helms Alee in here earlier, but the index says no, and I trust it. Helms Alee are a Seattle noise rock band, playing a sludgy and yet still poppy kind of heavy music with fun vocal harmonies. I'd recommend everything they've done, with Stillicide being my favorite of the lot. This comes from Weatherhead, put out by the gone and lamented Hydra Head Records.
The Wedding Present, "Dalliance"
If you look up "longing" in the dictonary, there should just be a picture of the cover art of this album, Seamonsters. And on an entire record of sad songs of longing, this might be the pinnacle. This song is still capable of giving me chills, what, 24 years after I first hear it? This album is a masterpiece, desolate and emotional, and you just want to give David Gedge a hug and you know it won't be enough. The moment when Gedge tears out "It's not fair / after all you've done / that I'm so... / I still want to kiss you" and the guitars jump in full blast, it's just a perfect moment.
Spitboy, "Moral Casualty"
All-female punk band from California that didn't last long, putting out basically just this one album and a handful of EPs, collected onto the CD. Because they didn't last that long, I don't really know much about them, other than they sound appropriately furious.
(NB: the song in question is at 16:35 of this video.)
Evita, "Myself To You"
Another metalcore song from that same Humble Bundle, and yeah...I don't really dig metalcore. Fundamentally, metal is a bit of a strange genre for me. When I like it, I really, really like it. But if it's a little off, I just have zero patience for it. And, because I don't really have that many folks helping me find stuff, I'll do a lot of blind experimentation, with the result that there are probably more dud metal albums in my collection than any other genre.
Lady, The Band, "If You Wanna Be My Man"
Soul revival band featuring dual female vocals, and production that is a love letter to classic 60s soul. The vocal harmonies are placed front-and-center, and it all works great. This is a throwback in the best kind of way: not slavish imitation, but an attempt to show what made a genre great originally and do their best to recreate it.