As a manifesto for change, there's something interestingly similar to Charlie Haden 's Liberation Music Orchestra I hear with "Undoing A Luciferian Towers," the latest single from the seminal post-rock outfit, Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  According to the band, Luciferian Towers , GY!BE's upcoming new album, was inspired by the following "grand demands:" + an end to foreign invasions + an end to borders + the total dismantling of the prison-industrial complex + healthcare, housing, food and water acknowledged as an inalienable human right + the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again It's an ambitious list.  Without getting into the politics and societal implications of these demands, the instrumental of "Undoing A Luciferian Towers" communicates aspiration.  From the light and quivering ambience of its beginning seconds to its gradual swell as layers of tone build upon its understated march, there is a missi...

Facial : "Black Noise" (via  Chain Letter Collective /Us-Them Group/Soundcloud) "Black Noise" is the second single from Facial 's upcoming new release,  Facade , which will be released September 29th via Chain Letter Collective.  You can pre-order the LP  here . __________________________________________________________ Humans Etcetera : "Silkworm" (via  Nefarious Industries /Earsplit PR/YouTube) From Earsplit PR: Nefarious Industries confirms the October release of Intelligent Skeleton by China-based solo outfit HUMANS ETCETERA , offering an early glimpse into the album with a video for the opening track, "Silkworm." HUMANS ETCETERA is an experimental rock outfit founded by West Virginia native, Christopher Henry , also a member of Fuck Your Birthday , and formerly of Clean Dirty Clean . The outfit's output unifies '90s alternative rock and post-hardcore and modern experimental rock elements into a mellow but engaging...

Pissed Jeans "Why Love Now" Sub Pop Records Released: 2.24.17 *Yes, Pissed Jeans has a song called "Activia." ** Here's that video: Just a note: Pissed Jeans' "Why Love Now" is a thoroughly satisfying, violently snarling, and intelligently amusing listen.  I couldn't recommend it more. Also, for the record, she did not hear the over-the-top office harassment poem, "I'm A Man."  I still have to censor her a little bit. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Def Leppard Hysteria Mercury Released: 8.3.87 We all start somewhere, right? It was four or five years after Hysteria ’s 80s-appropriate blend of hook-savvy and sugar-metal anthems had become permanently linked to my budding musical awakening that I found punk rock, which meant that all that had come before needed to be abandoned.   I was all in.   So, all that had been me was now forgotten with a cause, my newfound purpose to revel in my Alterna-angst and familiarize myself with all that was raucous and angry the main objective.   Def Leppard ’s Hysteria , despite all that it had meant to me, was no longer necessary.   We all go through this, right?   As eras change and tastes shift, especially when one is afflicted with prepubescent self-doubt and the need to fit in somewhere, you find yourself trying to outrun the things you once enjoyed and become this other thing that you may or may not relate to.   I was a child of the 80s, grow...

METZ is all payoff.  The immediately satisfying "Drained Lake" is the latest track from the band's upcoming new album, Strange Peace , another incentivizing preview that only provides further reason to regard the album's release with heavy excitement.  The album will be out on September 22nd from Sub Pop. Let this track fill your ears and subsequently meet your expectations.  And then read some stuff: the good people at Sub Pop have provided pre-order links, record info, and a heavy list of upcoming tour dates to review with an impressive roster of supporting acts.  I've seen METZ perform and I couldn't recommend them more.  If anyone reading this only plans on heading out to see one band play live for the remaining months of 2017, you wouldn't go wrong spending that opportunity on METZ.  Theirs is an energy unmatched by many.   “Drained Lake” is the latest METZ song from their new album, Strange Peace Strange Peace will be out Septemb...

PLAX : "What A Waste" (via  Super Secret Records /Us-Them Group/ The Austin Chronicle /Soundcloud) "What A Waste" is a new single from PLAX's upcoming release, Clean Feeling , which will be released August 11th via Super Secret Records.  You can purchase the LP here . __________________________________________________________ Hand Habits : "yr heart" (via  Saddle Creek /Force Field PR/Soundcloud) From Force Field PR: Document is a new series from Saddle Creek which aims to highlight artists and music scenes from around the world that the SC crew has fallen in love with, but aren’t necessarily already part of the Saddle Creek family. The third release in the series is the yr heart 7-inch from Los Angeles’ Hand Habits . Meg Duffy , aka Hand Habits , is a singer, songwriter and guitarist originally from upstate New York. She has been putting her time in on the road and in the studio over the past two years with pacific northwest band Mega...