New music for back to school

Prince (the other one)

I work up this morning to the din of the first day of school. Even being out of school for a while, I feel like the fall still has this sense of beginning to me, even as the summer comes to the close.

Out of curiosity looked up the current band of a friend I’ve fallen out of touch with and was instantly pulled in by what I heard. Have you ever been haunted by a song and found yourself playing and replaying the same song a dozen times to see if the lyrics match up with the music’s powerful first impression? That’s what happened to me when I heard “How ya been feelin'”, a track from a forthcoming 7″ from Austin’s Prince. It has such a great combination of energy and sadness. The lyrics are direct, but use imagery that evokes something more than the words. The other recordings on the band’s Bandcamp page are pretty great as well.

Una Bèstia Incontrolable and Iron Lung

Last week I saw Una Bèstia Incontrolable and Iron Lung play and I enjoyed hearing two bands play interesting heavy music that’s still grounded in punk and hardcore idioms. It’s hard because seeing heavy bands live sometimes feels like the way we engage with the music is so predictable compared with the music.

I really enjoyed this Noisey interview with Iron Lung because it revealed some surprising influences that I hadn’t listened to very intently including Flipper’s “Generic Flipper” and Rudimentary Peni’s “Death Church”.

Dystopian Society

Some dear friends just moved to Florence, Italy and I was curious what was going on in local music. This death rock band is the first thing that came up when I google “Florence Italy DIY punk”.