Weekly Winners, Week of 1/10/21 - 1/16/21

Weekly winners is a series I’ve been playing around with for a while that I believe is finally ready for your presentation. Basically what we’re going to do is spend about a week or so really sitting with the releases of the previous week, then on the weekend when we’re getting the new music of the current week I can show you the stuff that I thought was worth your time. This gives me a chance to really sift through the list so you don’t have to. First we’ll go over albums, EPs and other projects, then some key tracks and end it off with a list of tracks that I don’t have any comment for but are still valuable to hear in my view.

Gatecreeper - An Unexpected Reality (Closed Casket Activities)

Short, sweet and vile record from Arizona’s Gatecreeper. An Unexpected Reality is made up of seven one minute punk/metal tracks that hit you hard and fast then closes with an eleven minute epic drone metal track.

You Me at Six - SUCKAPUNCH (AWAL Recordings)

Weybridge band You Me at Six kicks off the new year with their seventh album. Its a band I’ve always kept my eye on but this is the first of theirs I’ve truly enjoyed.

Beach Bunny - Blame Game (Mom+Pop)

The release I was most anticipating coming into the new year with it’s first single, “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)” making such a lasting impression on me on the tail end of 2020. Blame Game showcases Beach Bunny’s usual brand of poppy indie rock and is among one of the several short listens this week at just fourteen minutes. The band also released a video for the title track this week that tackles the objectification issues women face.

Hail the Sun - Reimagined/Domino (Equal Vision Records)

Hail the Sun have released a collection of acoustic versions of various tracks from throughout their discography as well as a track from their upcoming album New Age Filth. So a very active time for the band so be sure to check it out.

Mayday Parade - Live at Screaming Eagle (Rise Records)

Legendary sad bois in Mayday Parade have released the audio from their October 2020 Out of Here sessions livestream. The live EP features all tracks from the Out of Here EP and closes with the stand alone single “It Is What It Is.” (Proving to me it should be the closer to the studio version of the EP but WHATEVER WHAT DO I KNOW?)

Ashnikko - L8r Boi (Parlophone Records)

Ashnikko actually put out a mixtape in the covered week which you can of course check out but I want to put your attention to this parody of the Avril Lavigne classic.

Frank Iero & the Future Violents - Losing My Religion (UNFD)

Another track on a whole release. Frank Iero continues his trek with the Future Violents and covers R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” which seems to be a popular cover topic lately. Cool spin on the old track.

Foo Fighters - Waiting on a War (Roswell Records)

This upcoming Foo Fighters’ album Medicine at Midnight has spanned a few singles to this point but none of them have been hitting with me until this one. (None of the bands music has hit with me in years up till this if I’m being honest.) The song has that 90s Foo vibe and addresses a distaste with the current world situation.

Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club (Universal Music/Polydor Records)

New track from Lana Del Rey from an album with the same name coming in just a couple months. The song doesn’t show any progression or changes from the last record but it’s still good, still an emotional piano ballad.

NOFX - Linewleum [feat. Avenged Sevenfold] (Fat Wreck Chords)

NOFX and A7X is in no way a collaboration I ever thought I’d see or quite frankly enjoy but I’m honestly pretty into this. The track takes a new updated spin on NOFX’s arguably biggest song with lyrics looking back on the original’s legacy.

One Morning Left - Ruby Dragon (Arising Empire)

Finnish band One Morning Left comes out with this new track and while I’m not familiar with this project really this song really stuck with me this week for it’s pulls in inspiration from things like crabcore and classic metal. Very nice vocal performance here too.

Starbomb - Underwater Train (Atlantis)

This certainly is a good electronic track and all and even sounds like the thing the title describes but the reason I draw attention here is because it does not appear to be comedy band comprising of Egoraptor, Ninja Sex Party and TWRP but it is on their discography on streaming services? Not sure what that’s about and can’t seem to find any info on it.

Other Tracks

AFI - Twisted Tongues/Escape from Las Angeles (Rise Records)

Altim Gun - Yuce Dag Basinda (ATO Records)

Black Sabbath - Snowblind [2021 remaster] (Warner Music Group)

Chapel - Pillow Talk (Rise Records)

Hayley Williams - Teardrop [Massive Attack cover] (Atlantic Recording Corp.)

Landon Tewers - Kill Me [feat. Rory Rodiguez] (self-released)

Of Mice & Men - Obsolete (SHARPTONE Records)

Stereolab - Dimension M2 (Warp Records)

We Were Sharks - Bring Me Down (Revival Recordings)