Aster Tracks

During the anticipation period of a record promotion is almost everything. Sure, there’s also the expectation of your old sound, but in the case of This Wild Life you know you’re getting emo-tinged acoustic rock so we have to really rely on the promotion there. In the case of their sixth record, Never Fade, This Wild Life really emphasized that there were features on this record. Yea, that’s what they promised, features. The features were all left in obscurity but were advertised as, *sigh*, the “emo Avengers” which were “assembled” to create this record. Pretty much all of these features are bands that are hot in their own scene right now and offer far more draw than This Wild Life, which is fine, but you would think you would have some sort of unknown in there. I also will, ahead of time, warn you that I’m going to go in on this band here. Not only for my complete middle of the road feelings toward their last record, Ever Blossom, but also for their vocalist Kevin Jordan. Two years

Honey Revenge seems to have, in just one year, gone from a band with just two songs out to a scene household name. The band even showed up on the cover of Rock Sound this month. The truth is; Devin Papadol and Donovan Lloyd have been grinding for a while now, playing shows in their own home scene around LA and developing quite a loyal following and community. I remember, throughout this past year, seeing so many posts from regular show goers wondering when this or that song would finally release. I myself chose to stay away from the large number of singles and save it all for the full record and it was worth the wait. The songwriting on this record is incredible, it works as a pop and rock album in equal respects and right from the get-go on “Airhead” you get a killer hook, a curveball in that solo section and something you can relate to on your worst days all while avoiding being too relatable and looping back to soulless. On first listen that all felt like it made for a slog of a lis

Atlanta, GA’s post-hardcore band Harm has released their sophomore album. This follows up 2019’s What We Know is a Drop, both of which are independently released. While I wasn’t familiar with Harm’s music prior to a song you can’t feel, I feel like I’ve become aware of them in a big way as a lot of people in my spaces and in the greater DIY heavy music community have been really anticipating this new record. I was with them as well in spite of it being territory I’m unfamiliar with based on the previews I heard of the singles on the greater record. I’ve looped back around to not being one for singles but with fifteen to thirty second clips being shared around in the modern age it's become my new way of sampling an album before it's out, now that it’s here though, I’m a little hot and cold. I want to start out on a positive note by saying that there’s plenty to love about Harm beginning with their dual vocalists. These two have incredible chemistry, they play off of each other w

Heart Attack Man has gained traction for a few things in the past couple of years. Fans will know them for their tight knit relationship with their listeners by playing games with them before their shows and being open about the status of the band online. While I never know about radio play their music has certainly gained traction as well; I've heard Pitch Black in a storefront on more than one occasion. Fan or not however you likely know Eric Egan, their wisecracking, shit posting, frontman and OH resident. None of that ever took away from the quality of their records, at least not for me, but that seems to have taken a bit of a dive on this new record. Something that I find sort of unenjoyable about Freak of Nature is that Eric leans into the bit of being the “annoying internet man” a little too much. On the title track, for example, there is a section where Eric sort of accosts himself for his own hot takes and opinions that he absolutely has to delete, but it just sort of make

If you’ve been paying attention to emo on the internet sphere you probably know Washington DC duo Origami Angel by now. They’ve made quite the name for themselves with their various EPs and especially with their 2021 double album; GAMI GANG, a top ten finisher for this blog in its release year. Now they’re back with The Brightest Days, a summertime mixtape that only adds to their impressive catalog. This is a summertime record as the band uses beachside imagery in the form of ukulele, the sound of waves alongside other elements of surf rock and easycore especially in single “Thank You, New Jersey.” On which the narrator shows a reflection of things learned on the road, being grateful for the social vibe of the titular state in particular. This, of course, takes a darker but still sunny turn on “PG County Summer.” On this one the author offers a vent about the state of their own home city of DC, painting an image of right-wing protestors who come in as if it's a fun family vacation

Boston, MA’s “cutest band in indie” have released their third full length record; Deep Down. I’ve known the Divine Sweater name from online circles but as I so often do I’ve neglected to check out their sound until a record drops in my lap and in this case I’m kicking myself for not doing my homework. Deep Down manages to encapsulate three distinct, yet perfectly blended sounds on just one body of work. A lot of bands and artists use the ocean as a hyper obvious and visual metaphor but so few of them manage to actually make it visible. What Divine Sweater has done here is make the ocean something you can actually see in front of you with the use of instruments like horns, an atmosphere of synth and bass or beautiful strings over slow picking acoustic guitar. It’s as if I’m staring right into the coast. The second layer of this sound is the overall reflective nature of the entire thing. On songs like the opening “In the Comedown” there is a languishing decision making as if the author i

This past weekend I followed my roommate to a Buffalo Daughter show in downtown Portland. I had never listened to Buffalo Daughter before and only knew that they were from Japan and didn’t tour the US much. Opening for them was another band, a three piece with a strange energy and impeccable vibes. Toward the end of their set they announced they were from Providence, RI. Three thousand miles from my home city a band breezed into town from the same place. Naturally I bought their latest record from them. It was on cassette and the music on it pretty much matched what I saw. My highest compliment on babybaby_explores is their ability to write a song about absolutely anything. On each track their vocalist, who introduced themselves to me as “Lids” while making the hand gesture of taking a lid off of a cup, sings in varying degrees of strange, but effective, vocal melodies about things that I’m not always totally sure are metaphorical as much as they are literal. The concept of sticking gu

It’s been fifteen months since the passing of musician Taylor Hawkins and in that year his bandmates in Foo Fighters have been very clear about how hard it is to carry on without him. Yet carry on they have with this new record, But Here We Are, which follows up 2021’s Medicine at Midnight. I personally enjoyed Medicine quite a bit at first but found that it kind of showed some fatigue in the band’s songwriting ability over time, which I think they would agree with as what really followed that record was two side projects covering the disco and thrash metal genres. But now we return to form and what a return to form it is. Right away from lead single “Rescued” we see classic Foo in the way they shine. “Rescued” itself is, as I said, a classic Foo Fighters track, made for radio, with a big chorus ready. Not that I think Dave Grohl is the most profound lyricist in the world but one of the first points I want to make is that trans-supportive lyric; Kings and queens and in-betweens we all

I have anticipated a proper, full project from musician and video essayist Dev Lemons for well over a year now. I’ve been following Dev’s SongPsych video series since 2021, where she tackles a topic in the music realm be it theory, industry or some other sort of topic or challenge and have enjoyed it for her humor, technical prowess and general personality. If you dig into her singles you’ll find that same charm. All that to say I knew Delusional would be great for a long time, I did not expect it to have so many surprises in store when it did finally drop. Given that, up until this point, Dev’s music did play in the singles space it’s exciting to see what she can do on a more realized body of work and Delusional does feel like a holistic experience. The lead single to this EP, “Nightstand” for example, was a fine track on its own with its bedroom pop presentation and a huge vocal performance from Dev. Once you actually turn on the record however and see that the opening song “Cyperpun