AND IN THIS CORNER…: Y’all listen up, because this is good. Although I’m pretty sure it’s recorded many more songs with engineer Kyle Spence, there’s a new three-song EP available from new hardcore/street punk band Beat Up. The band played its first and only show so far in February 2020 and, like everyone else, got locked down soon afterward. These songs are explicitly political and not inclined to pull punches. That said, they’re not so lyrically intertwined with their subjects that their themes cannot be made universal. Musically speaking, fans of Fucked Up, Angelic Upstarts, et al. will dig this. There’s also a slight but noticeable Dead Kennedys influence on “Double Time Double Down.” Find this at beatup.bandcamp.com and get info about upcoming shows and other information over at facebook.com/beatupband.
BURNT OFFERINGS: Did you sleep through World Goth Day on May 22? Don’t sweat it, vampire, a few locals have got ya covered. OK, let me back up a second. Carrboro, NC label Broken Sound Tapes released a sweet and easily digestible 13-track compilation named UNEARTH’D: Underground Deathrock, Post-Punk, and Darkwave and, as luck would have it, there are tracks from Vincas, Entertainment and Vision Video. Longtime local fans of this kind of stuff will be edified by the inclusion of former Atlanta project Feeding Fingers (now EU-based) as well. But let’s get back to business here. Vincas contributes the Dream Tent remix of its track “Let Me In” which is given the full synth/darkwave treatment, Vision Video pops by with the breezy and danceable “Static Drone” and Entertainment sends its smoke signal up via “Voyeur,” which is so shakily constructed its brittleness is audible. All in all this record is a treat, but the cassette version is sold out already, so your dream of reconstructing an authentic 1980s-style passenger-side floorboard is now vanquished. Both vinyl and CD versions are still ready for your money though, as is the digital download version. Please enjoy this over at brokensoundtapes.bandcamp.com.
FIELD OF DREAMS: Neighbor Lady will play with Annie Leeth at Southern Brewing Co. Thursday, June 3. The show is all ages and happens at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. In other news, Neighbor Lady has signed with New Orleans label Park The Van Records and have released a three-song video, but as of this writing, I’ve not seen it. Maybe by the time this is published, I will have! At any rate, it’s pretty needless to mention that Neighbor Lady has worked very hard over the past several years and I congratulate them on their superstar status. For more information, tickets, etc. please see facebook.com/Neighborladymusic and sobrewco.com.
DON’T THINK TWICE, IT’S ALL RIGHT: Similar in release structure to February’s Our City, Motion Sickness of Time Travel has also released three versions of the track “Caterpillar Tree Song.” Rachel Evans, who had yet to adopt the Motion Sickness moniker, wrote the song back in 2007 as a piano-based track but recorded it with full instrumentation in 2008. It’s pretty wildly different from anything recent listeners—as in anyone during the last decade—might expect from MSOTT. It is a pretty full-on alt-rock song and pulls from decidedly 1990s influences such as Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, et al. The remix, also here, was completed in 2010 by composer Mitchell Turner. Last year, Evans recorded the acoustic version available on this, and its arrangement is much more in the MSOTT style, but its effect is something akin to trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, or vice versa. The song itself is fine as a stand-alone item and a decent artifact of Evans, which fans should enjoy hearing as it marks an early spot on her musical path. Indeed, the original full-instrument recording is by far the best version of this. Evans’ revisiting it through her current style, though, is much less satisfying than letting it simply be what it is. Check it all out at motionsicknessoftimetravel.bandcamp.com.
SOMETHING IN THE AIR: I’ve been meaning to get around to this, but times being what they are, sometimes things get shuffled around inadvertently. So, lemme mention to you that Cloudland released its latest single a couple of weeks ago, and it’s the fourth and final to be released in advance of the band’s upcoming full-length Where We Meet, which comes out July 2. This latest track is “St. Elmo,” and it’s a completely catchy, kinda earworm-ish actually, indie pop song full of nicely melodic guitar arpeggios. I feel like the personality of the band shines through better on these types of tracks than, say, the album’s more bombastic first single “Where We Meet.” Both styles, though, work seamlessly for these guys and I’m looking forward to hearing the entire album in full context. For more information and music please see cloudlandband.com and facebook.com/cloudlandath.
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