Hallogallo is a cipher to Chicago’s teen-beat youth revolution. Within its pages, legends the likes of NEU!’s Michael Rother and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier mingle with mutual aid placements and essays on leftist history. The zine is electric with serendipity, where Kai Slater’s artistic personal tastes and friendships merge with open submissions.
Winged Wheel have expanded to a six piece ensemble involving Cory Plump, Fred Thomas, Whitney Johnson, Matthew J Rolin. and in addition to the first album’s lineup, Big Hotel enlists Lonnie Slack and Steve Shelley. In an orchestra where each person is a conductor, these experimental imaginations melt into one conversation.
The sophomore album of this New York art punk is a sensory amalgamation of haunting memories and chromatic films, gift wrapped in angelic gauze. With allusions to Deerhoof’s eclectic instrumentation, the groove is grafted onto Jeff Buckley’s sweeping romanticism, then filtered through ambient progressive rock.
“Will Get Fooled Again” is the latest single off SAVAK’s upcoming album, Flavors of Paradise, releasing on March 1st. The track courses with a surf rock groove, upon their trademark post-punk, and is laced with minor key guitar lines. “Will Get Fooled Again” provides an ebb of respite from the band members’ backgrounds.
Warm Dust, the sophomore album of Silt, takes place in the liminal season where blossoms have yet to defrost, the earliest day of spring. Ben Currotto’s initial vision of stripped, acoustic focus – metaphorically, the aftermath of the 2018 album Cold Clod Breaks Up, was transformed into a dynamic gathering of this new five-piece band.
Hot Air Balloon continues Pile’s mastery of intricate post-hardcore, animating a skeleton of sludge with the weeping flesh of psychedelic folk. Off the heels of their latest album All Fiction, the EP is composed of songs left off the final cut. Far from scraps, each song on Hot Air Balloon is striking enough to stand alone.
“Chill Pill” is the coldest and sharpest track on Glaswegian quartet Dancer’s latest EP, As Well. The video is no more warm than the song itself. In 1.5x speed and interspersed with blasts of a lo-fi painting filter, Gemma Fleet tromps around like a disaffected teenager kicking pebbles at flocks of sheep.
What is experimental rock, anyways? I’m Into Life Records, the LA/Kingston based label, is hunting for an answer, exploring every -wave and no-wave at the same time, building community along the way. With every artist that stretches their limits, we’re closer to finding out. #1 is the cumulation of East Coast Weird contemporaries.
Embarking on their West Coast tour of their third album, Food For Worms, Shame returns to the stage with a reinvigorated joy. The band members’ ties lasted beyond heartbreak, the dislocation of touring, and the fire of creative inspiration. Learning from past albums’ themes of angst and introspection, Food for Worms celebrates the tenacity of friendship.
In tandem with the band members’ distinct style, akin to ravens who enjoy Yohji Yamamoto, Boris’ cult reputation is only getting stronger. Post-Trash’s Selina Yang had the opportunity to rack Atsuo of Boris’ brain over the 2023 Heavy Rocks remaster, audience backgrounds, and their identity as artists vs. musicians.
Drolomon is CS Cleaners’ debut EP, concocting a hypnotic combination of classic punk, a la Black Flag, the art rock looseness of Tropical Fuck Storm, and the optimism of Sports Team. After their debut single “Income Pain,” a gritted teeth love letter to hardcore, the group planted their feet in warehouse floors sticky with beer and sweat.
Nate Dionne turns musical conventions into personal diary entries, referencing characters and moments only intimately known by the narrator. The past is oppressed with naivety. A bleak economic landscape looms over the narrative, of personal worth now being dictated by futile lottery tickets and faceless hierarchy, rather than family.
Something arises from hell, attempting to crawl its way into heaven – only to find that the god is just as terrifying. Nerver and Chat Pile are bonded by blood on their 2023 split EP, Brothers in Christ. Hailing from Missouri and Oklahoma, among the plains it’s impossible to ignore titanic billboards that scream “HELL IS REAL”.
Jess Rees and Luke Koz avoid straightforward confessionals, because a Russian Baths song should be abstract enough for each person to interpret personally. On a stormy day, Russian Baths sat down with Post-Trash’s Selina Yang for a discussion on cinematic juxtaposition, introspective lyricism, and plans for an upcoming record.
