The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format. Albums, singles, videos, and live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Jordan Krimston – Somewhere I Might Go
Somewhere I Might Go is an album of love songs, but they’re not all ballads of romance. There are those traditional love songs, like “Off Chance,” but there’re also songs about platonic love (“Izzy and Sam”) and self-love (“Somewhere That I Might Go”). As the follow-up to Jordan Krimston’s woefully underrated Bushwhacking, his ornate take on indie pop might even eclipse its predecessor.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
End of One – “Omnipotent Deceptor”
Though there have been plenty of bands to fuse death metal and hardcore, End of One is one of the earliest examples. I’ve even seen some people go as far as calling the band proto-deathcore. I don’t know if I would go that far, but for those in the northeast, their reunion EP Immortal last year was significant. It may have been some of their best material, rife with plenty of tremolo picking and guttural growls. “Omnipotent Deceptor,” their new single, provides more of the same death metal fury and even a surprising gang vocal to end the song.
Hugo Reyes @hvreyes5
Wishes on a Plane – We’re Still June / Blanket I
Listening to We’re Still June / Blanket I immediately makes it clear this is a holdover from a past era. Wishes on a Plane is a band from the early 2000s, and their style of emo is a kind they don’t make anymore, but it feels less dated than classic. The instrumental “Blanket I” is great, a glimpse into a world where post-hardcore means something akin to post-rock or post-metal, but the previously unreleased “We’re Still June” is the standout. It’s the sort of shimmering, soaring song that, if the right people had heard it at the right time, could’ve taken on a new life like “Never Meant.”
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Sailor Down – “Bat Signal”
On “Bat Signal,” Sailor Down uses a blend twitchy electronics with a steadily strummed acoustic as the backdrop for Chloe Deeley’s collection of lyrical vignettes. The run that gives the song its title sticks out the most as Deeley sings, “I used to wait for your bat signals / cut through the fog / feel your breath in the wind / it was mine all along” before the track takes a left turn to close out. As the first tune off Sailor Down’s upcoming Lookout Park, “Bat Signal” works well as an expansion of the sound built up on Skip the Line without losing the bedroom-recorded charm of that EP.
Aaron Eisenreich | @slobboyreject
cursetheknife – “The Gift”
Like Money, with whom they share members, or New Morality labelmates ASkySoBlack, cursetheknife exists at the intersection between shoegaze, grunge, and alt metal. “The Gift,” the Oklahoma band’s first new single since their twin Thank You for Being Here EPs, might be their best song yet. Spacious and pulverizing, it’s an auspicious first taste of whatever’s to come.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Moldy Roses – “Palm Tree Blues”
Ready for a pop-punk banger? LA’s Moldy Roses has you covered! “Palm Tree Blues” is not fast compared to their previously released material (e.g. “Bleach” released in 2020), but the lyrics are what grabbed my attention with lines such as “Wake up everyday with an ache in my chest” because at one point, we’ve all been there and have felt that. Damn.
Jazmin Lemus | @_Jazmin
Spinebreaker – Cavern of Innoculated Cognition
Before Gulch, there was Spinebreaker. Listening to the two back to back, you can make out some similarities in how Cole Kakimoto builds out his old-school death metal riffs. The comparisons stop there, though. Cavern of Innoculated Cognition has very little in the way of hardcore. Spinebreaker seems more interested in building out gnarled and cavernous death metal for people to bob their heads to.
Hugo Reyes @hvreyes5
Petal – “You Really Love Me”
“You Really Love Me” is Petal’s first new song in five years, and what a return it is, doubling down on all the lessons Kiley Lotz learned since covering Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Spring.” It’s a luscious pop rock ballad with sparkling harmonies that’d make Stevie proud.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week our editor Lindsy Carrasquillo compiles a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays on Twitter and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.