Aster Tracks

The purpose of this blog is to highlight musicians that don’t get enough credit while also trying to stay modern. A lot of my favorite bands had lightning in a bottle records then completely disappeared off the face of the earth. That may become true of Florida’s Least, as Sitting in the Best Light was released as a farewell EP and the band is already broken up. Least throws me back to a certain era of emo pop, specifically the 2000s, with their huge heartfelt hooks backed by a band doing so much inventive instrumentation while managing to stay within the realm of their genre. On all five tracks there’s a catchy, memorable line or two that make coming back to each feel rewarding. I need you, you’re angry, don’t power trip me baby A lot of the themes on Best Light hit hard but I also think I’m exactly the target audience. Songs about the growing pains of early transition and who surprises you with how much support or lack thereof you get out of them. I’ve listened to a lot of trans led ...

The Front Bottoms seem to be so much of an emo institution that it's become a joke. I recall a time back east, I was with my friends at a bar after our kly TCG tournament. One of my friends in particular only listens to emo and a Front Bottoms song came on. I asked if he knew it and he just laughed and said “of course.” I, however, am a fake emo. This is my first Front Bottoms album. Something that stuck with me about You Are Who You Hang Out With in particular are a lot of the vocal melodies and production on them. I feel like in this scene there’s a lot of gatekeeping and I’m surprised one of its greats uses auto-tune as, not only a vocal style, but a tool to enhance their music. That is especially apparent on “Paris” where there is a downbeat hook that I don’t even think would work at a normal register. The call and response vocal passages also really shine on the record and sometimes approach an almost hip hop-esque tone, at least that’s what it feels the influence is there. Su...

Scowl is the subject of a bit of discourse in the past week due to a recent brand deal with Taco Bell. Taco Bell posted a roughly seven-and-a-half-minute performance of the band and also featured them on their apps home page leaving some fans of the genre with some harsh things to say about the concept of artists in hardcore making a paycheck off of corporations. While I’m not here, necessarily, to stick up for one side or the other I will tell you that this actually made me finally get around to this release. This has been on my radar since it dropped back in April, and I know it’s a short one, but that time of year was especially packed with new drops, and I didn’t quite get around to it until the band was sort of in the headlines once again. Right off the bat the band demonstrates their ability to do so much with so little time on first track “Shot Down.” Hardcore verses and a beat switch into a groovy, grungey nineties rock inspired chorus seamlessly all rolled into two minutes...

If you’re at all in tune to the mainstream alternative sphere right now you’ve probably heard the name Kim Dracula. Even my own mother texted me asking me who they are and why she’s hearing they put out bad music because she was worried about having to catch a set before she watched Avenged Sevenfold. (This artist’s first set ever too, incidentally.) I myself had only heard the name with no context for a while and now that I have said context, both the music and the identity, I sort of hope to put my thoughts out and then never touch this subject with a ten-foot pole ever again. Look, I say it all the time; I’m not comfortable comparing artists. To be honest, like, there’s nothing new under the sun and people take influence from everything but they don’t deserve to be bound by that. That being said, Kim Dracula is currently on social media, telling their fans that they make music that absolutely everyone will want to mimic but they totally invented. The thing is though, if you just w...

Composer Cecily Renns and producer Biddy Fox have come together to form MIDI Bunny. To them this is a project that represents a lot about queer community and solidarity and that’s an easy sell for me. I didn’t know what to expect going into this EP, but it was a pleasant surprise and blend of sounds and influences. I would give you more of the story, but Cecily and Biddy have put it so eloquently on social media and I would much rather talk to you about the music itself. The record opens with “moonlight in the mirror,” a twinkly and ethereal piece of acoustic rock that depends on tugging on your heart strings. There’s a line here about life being one trauma after another and that being what we’re defined by and, while bleak, really puts in view a reality that I think we all feel every single day. I also really love this chilled out solo session toward the end, turning that expectation of an opening track on its head and hitting you with something to remember without it exploding in s...

Atlanta, GA’s Cascadent have some big things coming and are starting it off alongside Satyr’s Michael Campbell with new single “Watch the Tail.” This new track has a lot of heart and the band let me take an early look before it’s August 15th release date. The song itself has some really cool riffing throughout and even starts with a double take into a false triple take that really builds your anticipation. It does so sonically too, sounding a bit darker in tone before dissolving into a progressive post-hardcore jam fest. There are some really impressive vocal performances on this one, covering all sorts of ranges and working wonderfully around the more freeform sounding instrumentals. I want to thank Cascadent for letting me dive into this one early and you can hear “Watch the Tail” yourself one week from today. Support Cascadent

I don’t have much knowledge on Jack Harlow and to be honest I highly doubt a white man is the way I should be listening to more rap music, but it was on my backlog, it was short, we’re here now. Something I like and notice about Jack early into this particular project is how he tells it like it is and I don’t mean in the way your racist uncle does. On opening track “Common Ground” he criticizes white kids from his own hometown in Louisville for adopting black culture while gatekeeping it all at the same time. He also attacks misogynists for defending abusers in “Gang Gang Gang” where Jack describes situations in which former friends had turned out to have histories of assaulting partners or even taking advantage of children. The song sends a message that no matter how close you are to someone when they turn out to have done real, permanent harm to others you kind of have to let them go. “Blame on Me” pulls my heartstrings in a personal way. Here Jack talks about losing touch with his ...