The first pride parade was to commemorate a riot (if you don’t know what I’m talking about google Stonewall). Now it’s awash with cops, corporate sponsors clamoring to show they care, and banal playlists filled with pop divas and disco cuts. I love a pop hit, but I love music made by my fellow queer artists more, and I’m OBSESSED with queer musicians exploring their outsider status sonically as well as lyrically. With this in mind, I threw together a mix of punk pride songs for y’all.

Pride is about going out and making a ruckus in public (Shopping’s “Take It Outside”), reminding the people living in the closet or in homophobic places they shouldn’t give up (Le Tigre’s “Keep On Living”), and also about partying your face off (Chastity Belt’s “Pussy Weed Beer”) for all the queer people whose lives were cut short from the AIDS generation to the victims of the Pulse shooting. It’s about basking in the love your community has for you even if you have trouble loving yourself (Mallrat’s “I Don’t Hate My Body I’m Just Afraid of It”).

Billie Joe Armstrong (an out Bisexual) screaming “well maybe I’m the faggot, America!” on “American Idiot” was aspirational to me as a closeted gay teen, so that’s in there too. Nightspace takes the noise and aggression of punk and applies it to electronic music, so their anthemic “Modern Survival” is on there as well.  Finally, if you think this mix isn’t for you, allow me to quote Childbirth: “well everyone is gay anyway.”

Cheers queers!

The queer revolution is here and it’s…Kentucky-fried with a side of screamo? That’s what “scream-pop” duo GRLwood have been serving up all over town in Louisville, KY, sometimes performing five times per week. Comprised of singer/guitarist Rej Forester and drummer Karen Ledford, the queer punk duo teased us this year with five aggressive and controversial singles, ranging from a screamfest about being horny for someone and an ephemeral lament begging to connect with someone else. Their lead single, “Bisexual,” made the biggest splash as an attack on those who try to de-validate and erase bisexuality. And, today, with the release of their debut album, Daddy, on sonaBLAST! Records, it’s clear they’re ready to piss off any and all oppressive entities.  

Starting off with the moody, almost dreamy “C-State,” GRLwood tricks you into a state of passivity, unaware of the barrage of screeching that’s about to ensure. With such a necessarily aggressive ideology at the core of this project, it’s all the more heartbreaking when they have to slow it down and bare their hearts for us in songs like the opener, “Communicate With Me,” and “I’m Not You.” But outside of those three tracks, it’s time to get to business and dismantle everything and everyone in their way.

Singles “Bisexual” and “Vaccines Made Me Gay” are what you expect from a band like GRLwood. Forester rips, shred, and screams and Ledford pounds away at the drums like their rights depend on it. It’s classic punk rock by the books and, through the lens of queer liberation, it’s always a breath of fresh air from the cismale-dominated scene. However, what lifts this album above by the books are highlights “Wet” and “I’m Yer Dad.” Simultaneously hilarious, horrifying, and spritely, these two tracks are sure to destroy whatever venue GRLwood invades. A marathon of screaming and Mariah Carey-esque falsetto singing, “Wet” pushes Forester’s voice and guitar to the max as they, what sounds like, proudly climax over the course of three minutes. But it’s “I’m Yer Dad” where GRLwood needs to live. Perhaps the most hostile song on Daddy, it’s also the most colorful and animated as if the duo were a court jester mocking the falsehood that is masculinity. It’s proof GRLwood isn’t afraid to horse around and it’s their greatest asset.

Queer punk isn’t anything new, but only in the past few years have we seen all identities finally get the recognition they deserve. Groundbreaking acts like the late G.L.O.S.S. stuck with us because they so proudly shoved their anger with heteronormativity and with their own community in our faces like we’d never seen before. And while music like that is still highly necessary, it can paint a picture of a deadly serious community with no sense of fun. GRLwood is angry, there’s no doubt about that. But they know the joke is on the patriarchy so why not let your ass hang out and laugh in their fucking face?

“America is Gay!” – GRLwood

Find GRLwood on Facebook.

Twisty Cats latest video for their track “My Quiet Fantasy”  is like watching a black magic erotica. The women in the film gather in a semi-circle like witches performing a spell, covered in satin and diaphanous organzas, the rest of the congregation drink from chalices and bond each other in these fabrics. Both vocalists Peter and Blake have their own “quiet fantasy” until they are gathered together in a ceremony they drink a potion from a crystal vase,  which at the time is probably pronounced like “vahz” not “veyz”. The fantasy is dark and about suffering for your love Peter describes his ideal partner as a “ravaged beauty” while Blake sings about him like a “ghost from the past, tall, dark, brooding.” Each one goes through a trial of tests until they finally reach one another, either by choice or submission, it is unclear. The vocals are husky and the track quickly becomes a classic glam rock anthem, with ecstatic drums and guitar riffs. 

Catch them play on  June 13th at Berlin with Vacay Ultra and Yaasss

June 14th at El Cortez with Lulu Lewis and Flesh

Photo by Tamim Alnuweiri.

Sorpresa Familia opens up with their first lead-in single “Barcelona City Tour,” which is packed and punching with energy. It’s also pretty all-encompassing of the message the band’s trying to get across with this album. This is their third LP, which, as a band still in their early 20’s, is kind of crazy to think about especially since the sound is so mature and cognizant of what came before it.

Getting this album out has been a real tug of war between MOURN and the industry—caught up in legalities with their former Spanish label, they’ve written an album that’s very much about the oppression by “The Man,” which in relation to their lives is the corporate side of the music industry. They’ve made no attempt to bury that fact under the rug–they’re mad as hell. You can hear it in their voices on Sorpresa Familia.

A lot of the imagery they use to relay what they’ve seen is incredibly visceral, and manifests the pain and suffering within the body. With lyrics like “The candle in his hand / Is only hurting himself,” and “Please, feel your skin disappear / Peel your nails one by one,” they make their frustration palpable and physically uncomfortable. They turn the struggle of the band into one of the body, one that grinds them down to the bone. The resentment of being used as puppets – literally being told where to stand, where they can and cannot go–burns hot through this 12 track EP.

The fact that these kids have written an entire album in which every single song touches on this topic is a big kick in the balls to everyone who’s wronged them and anyone else who’s ever been in their position. They’ve taken a terrible, painful, incredibly irritating and demoralizing experience and made an album to be proud of. Their defiant tone and willingness to take a pretty nail-on-the-head, narrative approach to their lyrics, like on track 8, “Thank You For Coming Over,” while being playful and metaphorical on the next track, pays respect to punks from decades past. They say exactly what they want to in a simple way while also being clever and sometimes sarcastic: on track 8, the chorus goes, “Thank you for coming over / Every time I feel grateful / I feel blessed.” It’s all very Poly Styrene-esque.

Each tune has its own melodic, rhythmic, and fundamental idea that carries it and justifies the relentless message. Sisters Jazz and Leia Rodríguez, Carla Perez, and Antonio Postius work so well together, each contributing exciting and crucial components to each song.

Sorpresa Familia is out June 15th on Captured Tracks.

Photos by Lauren Khalfayan, find more of her work here. 

Hablemos Del Alma is the moniker of Angelo Santa Cruz  a Chilean new-age electronic musician, who makes music for the “soul.” Hablemos del Alma (Let talk about the soul)  is satirically titled, Cruz riffs on the self-care craze which so often is intertwined with narcissism and gluttony. Cruz mentioned that in Chile people will often pop pain pills as ritualistically as people drink their early morning coffee. Through this form of “care” often people tend to avoid responsibility, spirituality becomes like an escape or an antidote to the uncertainty of everyday life. New Age music is often thought of as another form of escapism. Certainly, Hablemos Del Alma’s music takes the listener on a sonic experience, it’s not as straightforward as a rock or pop ballad.

Hablemos Del Alma latest track release is titled “Presagio Nocturno“ and he works with another artist Fulin Lawen. In Angelo’s track “Presagio” the mind becomes ensorcelled through the propulsive force of the guitar, the looping effects create a trancelike sweeping energy. Angelo Cruz interweaves abrasive, concrete drum & bass synths, with simple guitar chords. The track is more experimental and resembles early John Maus, without being cliche. His recent self-titled EP Hablemos Del Alma is slightly more lush and lo-fi, reminiscent of bands such as Blouse or Puro Instincto. Yet there, is that quasi-religious note to the music, the lyrics “una palabra bastara para cenarme” which translates to “just one word from you will fulfill me” a line manipulated from a prayer in the Bible. Rather than referring to God, it refers to a lover’s sentiments, the split that comes from not truly knowing your partner or anyone completely. There is depth and melancholy to the poetic lyrics, which confronts issues that often torment the soul. “Quienes se desaniman ante la adversidad,” which translates to “Those who get discouraged in the face of adversity” is my favorite track, his honeyed voice sounds like a sensuous hymn.  

If for some fortuitous reason you find yourself in France during the verdant summer season you can catch Hablemos Del Alma play live or along with his other musical group Nueva Costa His shows are often one infinite-like-loop, where there is no clear beginning or end. Catching him play live is like entering a whirlpool of belonging.  

Play This At My Funeral is a new mixtape series where people (somewhat obviously) curate music for their own funerals. This week Wisha Kungsanant, a booker at Murmrr, shares her death trax.

What life is about

Pointless and full of regrets

Unfulfilling dreams

What life is about

We are all trying, at least

This music is good

Luis Lucio‘s Nightcrawler series is a documentation of his nights in New York City, the shows he sees and the people he meets. Below are the photos Luis took at the Elsewhere. 

Nothing suits summer better than a melancholic rock song, and today, Seattle-based alt-rock band Dismal Thinkings has gifted us with just that. In “Gone Away,” lyricist/guitarist Isaac Evans’ vocals are lackadaisical while simultaneously deep in thought, while Jacob Sloniker’s drums clash in the distance and Mylean Raeder’s bass lines hit right in the gut. “We think it encapsulates our journey both personally and musically in this period of our lives. It’s influenced by radical transition, the ache of change, and the excitement of new beginnings,” the band says about the song. With hints of The Districts, the heart-breaking track has some hardcore sensibilities while staying melodically driven and honestly, it’s just really, really pretty.

Dismal Thinkings’ upcoming album Blanket Fort is set to drop in July and will be followed by a west coast tour with Public Theatre.

Follow the band on Facebook, BandCamp, and Instagram.

The hot and sticky summer calls for War Violet’s whimsical escapism of psychedelic folk rock. Multi-instrumentalist Jummy Aremu debuts her self-released EP Getaway today, culminating her musical journey and transformation of last two years into a apartment-recorded EP of four distinct songs that each tell a story. The EP combines multiple genres of jangly pop, lo-fi, folk, and rock opera. I’m getting the Beach Boys meets Angel Olsen vibes, and it’s pretty groovy.

Though Getaway overalls evokes upbeat and sunny vibes, Aremu’s lyrics and vocals hint a sense of longing. Bittersweet, kind of like how summer feels in its last days. Throw on your big 70s sunglasses, listen to this while walking around, and “create a world shielded from the harshness of city life,” as Aremu intended.

Follow War Violet on Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp.

From Craigslist to California, Brooklyn’s own THICK just don’t know when to stop. And thank God they don’t! They’re joyous, they’re enraged, they’re a little drunk, and they’re every punk’s best friend. We’re only halfway through 2018 and they’re already probably a strong contender for the same title again. So far, they’ve completed their first West Coast tour, released one hell of a new record (Would You Rather EP), and killed it at Northside Festival where they headlined two showcases and introduced us to a gut-bustingly hilarious and honest screaming track about the expectations their moms put on them.

So, yeah, it’s safe to say that THICK might be taking over Brooklyn. Other than uproariously fun shows and massive riffs, they’re also just really fucking cool. Guitarist Nikki Sisti bounces around (during shows and in person) like a toddler in a candy shop, grinning with a smile that could fill a magazine cover. A little on the shy side, drummer Shari Page lounges back with some serious too-cool-for-school, SoCal vibes despite her Long Island origins. Like an older sister bassist Kate Black watches over the band in between body rolls and head-banging. These three energies convalesce into an addictive punk rock presence, but it all wouldn’t have happened if Black hadn’t answered an anonymous Craigslist ad looking for a bassist.

Several years into their career, THICK meet me at their Bushwick rehearsal space so I can try to catch a glimpse of the magic that created fantastic jams like “Bleeding”, a grungy, straight-up anthem about menstruation. With wine, beer, and leftover homemade rice crispy treats in tow, I was treated to priceless comments like “I’ve been killing it at sweet potatoes lately,” pop-punk/emo nostalgia, and loaded french fries at a bar up the block. The trio invited us in with open arms and not a single ounce of judgment or pretension, a breath of fresh air in the cynical New York scene. In fact, the night ended up feeling like I was just shooting the shit with some cool people I met at a bar randomly one night. 

If THICK couldn’t make punk music anymore, what would you make?

Nikki: Anti-Folk music. I would love to make Jeffrey Lewis songs. With his lyricism. 100%.

Shari: I would play guitar in a dad-rock band. Or I would mix, like, folk and EDM because I like making terrible beats and I really like playing folk music.

Kate: You would totally be in a dad-rock band.

Nikki: Would you rather be in a huge folk band that sucks but everyone loves…

Shari: And fall asleep every night when we play?

Nikki: Or a huge EDM band and you had to do cocaine every night to play your shows or play pop-punk?

Shari: Pop-punk.

Kate: Pop-punk. Although, I don’t really like it.

I feel like I missed out so much on the pop-punk craze.

Nikki: I feel like it was all that was around me. I literally didn’t know anything about anything besides what was on the radio.

Shari: It just was so big when we were in high school and Long Island was all pop-punk and emo bands. For me, that stuff’s really nostalgic. What was cool was meeting other people that have the same love for those terrible bands.

Nikki: Did you go to all the Taking Back Sunday shows?

Shari: No one in my grade was into those shows. I went to every single emo, pop-punk show.

What bands are we talking about?

Nikki: Let’s hear it, Shari.

Shari: The Early November, Catch 22, Envy on the Coast, High School Football Heroes. I saw Good Charlotte when I was, like, 13.

Nikki: I saw Good Charlotte. I waited in line for that concert.

Shari: I was obsessed with Envy on the Coast. They went to my high school so I was obsessed. No one in my grade was into that. I just went. I had friends who were a year older or a year younger and we were just emo kids.

Nikki: Did you have black hair?

Shari: I never really looked emo. I’d wear a Senses Fail sweatshirt with jeans, but I was never really emo. I really hated Long Island.

Where in Long Island were you?

Shari: Syosset. It’s a huge Long Island town. White privilege. Rich kids. Everyone’s an asshole.

I’ve never heard a single positive thing from people who’re from Long Island about Long Island.

Kate: My boyfriend is from Long Beach and he really likes it. It’s actually its own island. It’s separated from the rest of Long Island.

Shari: Yeah, it’s a cool beach town. Growing up, it’s all like, “Oh, that’s where the surfers are.”

What’s your shirt say Nikki?

Nikki: Oh! “Dammit, Shari!” It’s my favorite shirt. She always says something that baffles me and I’m like, “Really?”

Is this a thing? Do you really say this a lot?

Kate: All the time.

Nikki: A good example is I was bartending one night and I was getting my period and she was like, “I’m gonna go get a chicken salad.” I’m like, “Sure, go get it. Go get your chicken salad, Shari.”

Shari: That was my routine.

Nikki: I told her, “Just get me a chocolate bar. I’m just craving chocolate.” And she comes back with a Hershey’s baking chocolate bar. And that just described my whole relationship with Shari. That constant moment of, not disappointment, but nothing’s really right.

Shari: I was also so high.

Nikki: Even during shows, she’ll be like, “Hey, guys, I’m ready to start!” And we’re like, “Great! Let’s go!”

Kate: And she hasn’t even taken her shoes off yet!

Nikki: And it takes her five minutes to take her shoes off.

You take your shoes off to drum?

Shari: Yeah, I always play barefoot. It hurts my feet otherwise and barefoot is just so free.

Nikki: There are all these small things with her that aren’t that weird—they’re just a little off. I’ll be telling a joke and I’ll have a punchline and Shari’s jokes just ruin it. I’ll be like, “So I was walking to school today,” and she’ll say, “Why are you walking to school? Just take the subway,” and I’m like, “You ruined the entire joke!” That’s “Dammit, Shari!”

It’s like a sitcom. It’ll be called “Dammit, Shari!”

Nikki: Yeah. Shari is a sitcom. Our first EP was called Dammit, Shari.

If the three of you are like Seinfeld, who’s who?

Nikki: Shari is George Costanza, for sure! Kate is Larry David. She produced it. That’s for sure. Like, behind the scenes. Am I Kramer? Be honest.

Kate: Are you Jerry?

Nikki: I think I might be Jerry. I don’t know.

I don’t know you guys that well, but Shari reminds of George. Just the Long Island thing alone. Do your friends yell at each other?

Shari: Kind of.

Kate: I think Shari might actually be Newman.

This reminds me, and maybe I’m horrible at segues, but I had a game I wanted to play with you guys. If you guys ever had a knack for improv.

Nikki: Oh, my god. Let’s do it.

Shari: I have a failed acting career.

Me too!

Nikki: When I met Shari, she was an actress. I’m gonna need some more beer for this.

I wanted to see if you guys could imagine THICK as a person, like a character. Mr or Mrs THICK.

Kate: First of all, THICK would go by “they.”

Nikki: Kate would choose that. Definitely “they,” but they’d be a mix of tomboy and feminine. Like, you can’t tell. But they’d be super stoked by whatever.

Fluid and androgynous.

Shari: We’re definitely a tomboy band.

Nikki: When we first started the band, I only wore oversized t-shirts.

Kate: I always teased both of them that when they started dating girls, they both started dressing girlier. I dress pretty femme, but I’m such a tomboy at heart and played rugby in college. I got 10 stitches in the mosh pit at SXSW.

Nikki: We were at a Metz show. It was a 360 on the ground show and the monitor is in front of Kate because, of course, we’re up front.

Kate: And we’re pushing around 200-pound men, which is kind of my favorite thing to do in the world. But at the second to last song, all of a sudden, I have no idea, something hit me from behind and I went flying. This is the puzzle because I landed on the ground, Nikki picked me up, and I was looking at my friend who was playing bass at the time and I looked down and thought, “Okay, so I missed his pedalboard and didn’t fuck up his set so this is all fine.” And I laughed it off and looked down and I was just gushing blood. And I waited a little bit to go to the hospital because I was like, “This is totally fine!” It wasn’t that bad and I wasn’t that wasted. Not wasted enough that it would have fixed pain. I must have hit the metal part of the back of a monitor. I don’t know what was so sharp. It felt bad, but not horrible. I went home and started cleaning it out and, all of a sudden, I was like, “Oh, well, there’s my bone. That’s cool. Maybe I should go to the ER.”

Nikki: I was up watching Bob’s Burgers and eating pizza and I was like, “Go to bed. You’re fine.”

Like, your open wound is affecting me.

Nikki: Kate’s like, “I’m going to the ER.” And I’m like, “Fine. Whatever.”

What pisses THICK off? This might be obvious based on what you play.

Kate: Being condescended to. It makes me want to punch people in the face.

Nikki: When people are having a good time, but they don’t want to show it because they want to act cool.

Kate: Oh, fuck that, too!

It’s like the Brooklyn scene.

Nikki: It’s not everyone, but a lot of people. And I’m like, “I know for a fact that this song is a jumpy song.” Even if you don’t like the music we’re playing…I hate when people are too worried about their freaking self-image to just let go. That pisses me off. Fashion punk pisses me off.

And I’m a 12-year-old and my most important question about this character is what gives them the shits? Cocaine?

Kate: Beer.

Nikki: Nervousness. Well, that’s me, at least.

Shari: I get nervous shits, also.

Kate: A lot of people do that, I think. My old roommate used to have to shit every time she had a date she was excited about.

Do you guys have any ticks for when you’re nervous or maybe even super excited on stage?

Kate: I always just stare at Nikki when I’m unhappy. If I look anxious, she’ll bounce more and then I’ll want to bounce and be like, “Okay, fuck what’s going on out there. Fuck what’s in my mind. But we’re here. It’s just us having fun and playing music. I can enjoy myself.”

Does Nikki have a tick for when she’s extra excited or extra nervous?

Kate: Extra nervous, she gets extra corny on stage.

Nikki: No! What is corny?

Kate: You take your normal moves and multiply by them by, like, 3000?

Nikki: That’s just me having fun. When I get nervous, I just turn around and look at Shari.  

Shari: Yeah, I actually don’t crack under pressure, so…

Kate: You just giggle a lot when you’re nervous.

Nikki: Shari just talks all the time on stage.

Shari: I feel like we didn’t have a lot of people at our shows at first and I felt like I had the fill the gaps in between our songs with bad jokes. I think it’s important that there’s a good balance between our personality and the music. As long as you’re not talking too much.

Find Thick on Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp.

The LA-based punk band SadGirl has just been welcomed into the Suicide Squeeze family and recently released a single from their upcoming 7” Breakfast For 2—which will officially be released as blue, pink, or classic black vinyl August 17th (pre-order here). Misha Lindes would now like to say a few words and play for you a few songs about his funeral.

“I guess these songs are just a few that I always cycle back to, no matter what. I couldn’t get rid of these songs If I tried. They just resonate with me for some reason and thats it. Each one of the artists or tracks reminds me immediately of a specific time in my life. Although they aren’t arranged chronologically in that way, this is for sure an autobiographical playlist.
RIP ME.”

Follow SadGirl!

Neon, skydiving, airplanes and a multitude of sunglasses. Tampa, Jeff Kite of The Voidz’s L.A. band, premiere their new music video for “Silent Moon”. The fast paced music video features skydiving test-runs, high energy close-ups of the band and airplane cockpit footage that complements the retro, memory-making, future nostalgia rock ’n’ roll feeling of the song quite well. A definite step up production-wise from April’s mostly homemade video for “Teen Age”. And if the bass groove or catchy chorus isn’t enough, I think we can at least all agree that the bass player’s shirt is amazing.

Keep up with Tampa on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

If you’re ever told that the sweat-and-leather-driven, electric guitar rock ’n’ roll is a thing of the past, “Residual Grimace” completely debunks that assertion. Material Girls’ new single starts off as a downtempo bar-stool swing, with a descending bassline, horn section and guitar line that Jack White undoubtedly wishes he wrote. After a couple of tension-oozing verses, the band erupts and you’re thrown into a chaotic sex storm fury and tossed back in a drag bar already three drinks deep. Sonically it’s as if Morphine recorded in the rehearsal space The Doors did L.A. Woman in… with a shirtless 1970’s Iggy Pop producing it. Atlanta’s finest up-and-coming rock sextet is a complete overhaul of rock ’n’ roll old and new, with a strong make-up game. It’d be easy to dismiss Material Girls as an all-looks glam-punk act, but their music seems to hold something a bit more substantial.

“Residual Grimace” is released ahead of their debut LP, Leather, out July 6th via Irrelevant Music and Exag Records.

Margaret Glaspy’s music puts the hard to say thoughts into words that otherwise can’t be found. Her debut, Emotions and Math, tackled love, loss and accepting change—classic themes, but in a refreshing manner only Glaspy could achieve. This past Saturday, Glaspy played a sold out show at Le Poisson Rouge, joined by her beau, the incredibly talented jazz guitarist Julian Lage. The duo performed many of Glaspy’s original songs, along with a charming cover of “Harvest Moon,” and a few songs written together by Glaspy and Lage. Before the show, Glaspy sat down to talk about the tour and what else she’s been enjoying.

Your new EP, Born Yesterday, was written on the road– which environments and landscapes inspired you the most and how did those elements affect the songs?

Margaret Glaspy: There wasn’t much of an environmental influence on the album directly, it was mostly just being in the back of a van or a tour bus or on a plane and kind of working on the songs one by one. There was no direct environmental place that influenced them overtly; mostly I worked on them, arranging them at sound checks, on the bus, that kind of thing.

So you’re doing these shows with Julian, how does touring with him affect the overall experience?

It’s great, it’s really inspiring, and it’s nice to mix it up and have a different set up, and nice and creatively challenging to have to adapt to a different ensemble. We have music that we wrote together, that we’re playing as part of this tour—that’s really awesome, and Julian’s just an amazing guitar player.

He’s mostly jazz, right?

Yeah he’s primarily a jazz guitar player but also an amazing composer and writes most of his own songs, he’s like in his own genre writing these really melodic songs. I think often when you think of jazz, it’s some kind of overtly improvised genre—and he improvises so much, but it’s also based on these very melodic song structures that are kind of disarming in a way you can sing along to, and it’s just very special.

Do you feel like you’re improvising more in these shows more than you normally would when you’re by yourself?

I think I do improvise more, especially vocally because Julian covers more of the guitar territory—it makes it so that I can rely on him in that way—just sing with my full capacity which I don’t get to do because I’m always covering all these guitar parts for my own trio. Sometimes I think I’m restricted vocally, so it’s cool to have him kind of cover it and focus on being a singer.

I love your songwriting because it’s so honest and you don’t hold anything back—I feel like you’re very good at noticing when there’s a problem and writing about it and getting out in the right way. How does that translate into your relationships with other people?

I think I struggle like anyone else in confronting issues or trying to get something right. I’m a fan of cutting away the excess, for sure, I think that does play into the way that I often record music, especially. I think that was a means to make my first record—just to really distill things, and now I’m kind of exploring other ways to make music, but that was definitely the mission for Emotions and Math and the EP too. I had this mindset of getting everything that’s extra or doesn’t point to meaning out of the way so that I could have something that was tangible and that I could I understand emotionally. In life I think being human is hard, confronting people is hard, but overall I like to keep it straightforward, and having everybody understand what the situation is all the time. I’m passionate about having no room for error, I think that is something that kind of drives me crazy—when there’s room for people to get it wrong. I blame myself if it happens—as if I wasn’t explicit enough, but sometimes it can drive me crazy where I over explain things, so I suppose that’s my mode around situations.

Communication is so important, if you don’t say it it’s just going to bother you.

Yeah, nobody heard it.

I know you like to play cover songs in your sets, do you ever listen to the Chris Thile show Live From Here? So he does this thing where he has people tweet song requests and then he picks one to perform, about five minutes before he performs it—would you ever do that?

In September I’m kind of doing a covers tour, I’m such a songwriting nerd. I love songs in general. It’ll be fun because there are so many songs I kind of worship and I’m going to do a set of those.

And you started on violin?

Fiddle player.

So you probably like that kind of music?

I don’t really listen to that music, but it was what got me in the door and I was really into it back in the day. I feel like it was a means to get to where I was now and I didn’t even know that it was in a way. I was a Texas style fiddle player from about 8 years old to 16 or 17, so I was a competitive fiddle player for a long time, which was amazing because it got me to where I really learned how to play an instrument and understood in the acoustic music scene, listening is a huge priority, and once I stepped out of that bubble, not everyone is really listening. I think that there’s a real high priority on listening, also there’s not really often drum kits [in acoustic music] so another thing is if you’re playing a rock show or something, the beat is often so overt. In acoustic music if you’re playing only guitars/double bass/fiddle, you just have to feel it a little bit more and really listen to how they’re feeling the beat—you have to do that with a drum kit too but I think once a drum kit gets involved you have to kind of zone out. In the acoustic music scene, there’s some amazing musicians playing bluegrass and folk music and I don’t play that music anymore but that was definitely where I started.

I’ve been playing violin since I was five but I’ve always felt like it’s so hard to sing in front of people—did you find it hard to start singing?

I didn’t, that was pretty natural for me. To me violin was a little more scary. I mean both of them are so relative pitch wise. On a guitar you have frets and you still have to worry about pitch, that’s also another thing with the drums. People start to relax, and same thing with guitars, they’re like “My fingers are there, that’s where the fret tells me to go,” but you can still be out of tune and be putting your finger in the right place, so these are little things that I think create illusions around what you should be actually paying attention to. But violin, it’s just like you’re out on your own [laughs] and there’s so much more work that people lay down to learn how to have good pitch and if it’s wrong it’s wrong. I felt like it was such a loud instrument even though it’s not that loud, when you mess up on a fiddle it’s so humiliating, and if I messed up while I was singing I was able to gloss it over a little easier. I just felt more natural being a singer than I was a fiddle player for sure.

And the weather won’t knock your instrument out.

Yeah it’s hard to sing when it’s cold but not nearly as hard as playing the fiddle in the freezing cold.

What are you using as walk in music on this tour?

I used to have playlists but I don’t have a playlist this time around, so I gotta get to it. It’s the venue’s music. Certain tours I feel like I’m more integrated into the experience and other ones I’m just working on music, I don’t think about that, so sorry audience, you gotta fend for yourself on the walk in music [laughs].

If you could pick right now what would it be?

The Strokes, Elliott Smith, some Lauryn Hill, Aretha Franklin, just a real collection, there’s a lot of different stuff.

Did you ever have a moment where you wanted to give up on music?

Oh yeah totally. I think when you make something your livelihood, it changes the relationship to it so much. I’m interested in so many things, not always music-centric, although that’s what I’ve become known for in the “public eye.” For me, there’s so many things that I like to spend my time doing that some days I forget, like oh shit, I gotta make records and make a living and play shows and stuff because I’m doing other things that don’t really relate to music as much. I think it’s going to always be in my life and I’ll always do this and perform but I’m excited to do other things as well, and incorporate them into what I do. When you have to package it, put it out and sell it, it’s different than writing songs for the fun of it.

So what else have you been doing?

I’m a big reader, so I spend a lot of time reading, I’m a big knitter, and I knit a lot.

You should knit your own merch!

Well, I wouldn’t do that, it’s so time intensive, people have asked me before to knit things, I just get so into it I’d be afraid that I’d never come back. It’s also intense on my hands. If I could be in school for something right now I’d probably be a women’s studies major, that’s the kind of literature I read a lot. Outside of that, I acted a bunch when I was young, so I have aspirations to get back into it now, and so that’s hopefully in the near future. I like making things, and running. Sounds like hobbies, but for me when I’m in it, I’m really in it.

Find Margaret Glaspy on Facebook and Instagram.

Brooklyn/LA based band White China’s newest single, “Follows You Around,” sounds like a hybrid of Lana Del Rey at the heights of her haziest, dreamiest glory, infused with the ambling vocals of Lou Reed: “Do you like to disco?/Do you like to party?/ Got a reputation/shadow on the ground/follows you around.”

The Lana Del Rey half is no surprise—one third of White China is producer Gianluca ‘Luca’ Buccellati, whose previous work includes engineering credits on Lana Del Rey’s latest album, Lust for Life. The rest of White China is comprised of Luca’s brother Sanj and model Aaron Bernards. The project began when Luca sent out a series of demos recorded in his Brooklyn apartment to the LA-based Aaron and Sanj. The three worked together to establish and refine White China’s bi-coastal sound, combining “NYC urban grit and LA daze” aptly described by HERO in an interview with the band.

Out of the tracks released White China has released so far, “Follows You Around” is perhaps the most exemplary of this multi-faceted, blended aesthetic. It perfectly taps into the archetypes and fantasies of both coasts, for a sound that’s reminiscent like déjà vu, but intriguingly new and fresh at the same time.

White China is set to release their debut LP later this month.

Remember those summer nights where you end up making out with your crush while you’re on some wild wine infused adventure? Your merlot stained mouths eagerly greeting each other in the dark. Then, all of a sudden, in the midst of you two clumsily pawing at each other you start getting a case of the wine spins. That feeling right there: The heavy humid air, the nervous butterflies, and the feeling of falling down the dark hole of wine drunkenness—that’s exactly what this split EP is like.

Two of the heaviest psych rock garage bands of Australia, Ruth Carp & The Fish Heads and Dead Brian, have gotten together in unholy matrimony to bring you this feeling of clumsy drunk love in their newest split EP Ruth and Brian’s Unholy Matrimony. Filled with songs about the monotony of life and the struggle to be unique—it’s hard not to go down the dizzying rabbit’s hole with these guys. Exclusively streaming today on Alt Citizen, the EP is drenched in hazy layers of guitar with haunting vocals soaked in regret and acceptance.
Listen below and give into the spins.

Follow Ruth Carp & The Fish Heads and Dead Brian! 

Photos by Aricka Moultry-Davis. Polaroids by Grace Eire.

When we get to the venue at 4:00 PM, there’s already someone posted up outside, seemingly in the hopes of getting a ticket to the sold out show. It’s so fucking hot outside, and he’s going to wait there dripping with sweat to see Meg perform. Later that night we see him front and center with his phone taking video the whole entire time. This is the level that her devoted fan base functions on.

While we wait for Meg to make it to the venue on that ridiculously hot day, her drummer lights a bundle of sage on stage. She’s running a little late, but the other photographer and I are happy to sit in the dark air conditioned venue while we wait. When we meet, her tone is cool and calm, and she seems to be relieved by the news that we wouldn’t be doing a full-on interview, just a quick shoot and hang. Her hair, a short bob with bangs, is growing out from a short pixie – her hands are constantly tousling the bangs or adjusting the sides to sit in front of or behind her ears. She’s “PMSing,” but turns it into a joke as my camera flashes right in her face for a closeup. We commiserate over how hard it is to remember people’s names, or to put a face to a name until you see that face in person once again, when I ask if she’s met my friend/her publicist. 

I insist that she continue whatever she’d been doing before we invaded the basement green (blue) room, and she nonchalantly tells us that she was taking a swig of tequila. A few moments later, her drummer appears with the same smoking bundle of sage, saying that he’d been scolded upstairs for setting something on fire in the venue, weirdly. Meg and her bandmates have a very mellow aura offstage in the middle of the afternoon, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from her show. We left her to finish her chicken and rice.

Even with air conditioner pumping, the amount of bodies in the space combined with the humidity pouring in from outside, the heat set the tone for the show. It only took a few songs for Meg to push her long flowing sleeves as far up her arm as possible, and for her hair, which was now halfway up in two little buns, to stick to her face in thick strands. She may be petite, but she leaves nothing to be wanted onstage. She’s very theatrical in her delivery, reaching her hands out to the crowd and up to the heavens when she’s not playing bass on a song. Her face is lit up with rage or heartbreak, and her voice is a powerful vehicle for her words. In between songs, though, she comes right back down to the tone she used to speak with me earlier, engaging in the crowd’s attempts to have a two-way banter sesh with a cool calm. Occasionally she’ll pace the stage, collecting herself before diving into the next song.

I was most surprised by the makeup of the crowd. I guess I was expecting mostly younger females, but there was a pretty even mix of ages, genders, and ethnicities. Her music clearly has a wide appeal, and her fans sang along and took videos for their Instagram stories with stars in their eyes. Towards the end of the set, Meg noticed me and gave me a wave, proving that underneath the theatrics and the slick comments to the audience, she’s a sweetheart trying to connect to her fellow humans through her music.

Life released the video for their recent single “Grown Up,” a song that makes you think about the things that make adulthood and age what they are. The perfect song to play during a summer night when realizing what being a “grown up” really means (I’m not talking about the bills).

The home video/vintage quality meshes perfectly with the hoppy rifts and chorus of “Grown Up.” Life is essentially giving us the necessary tools to enjoy great music, rock out and dance our adult worries away.

Keep up with the band on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook