What I Heard This Week: Unnatural Helpers, Screaming Females, Krieg, The Body, Small Black

Not that I want to burden anyone with an overabundance of music that caught my attention, but I’m going to anyway. The week, unfortunately, didn’t allow for me to post as regularly as I originally intended, but the songs just kept coming and I feel compelled to give them their due. Plus, some of the upcoming releases tied to these songs could be/are worthwhile. Just an opinion, of course.

Unnatural Helpers: “Girl In The Window”

This is the second single from Unnatural Helpers’ latest album, Cracked Love And Other Drugs, stop motion peeping tomfoolery to go along with their garage vibe. The girl in the window’s got some “seismic waves,” apparently. I wonder if they’re talking about her tits.



Their first single, “She Was Your Girlfriend,” has a great video with hysterical and argumentative couples yelling and flipping middle fingers.



Screaming Females: “I Don’t Mind It”

Screaming Females will be releasing their new album, Castle Talk, on September 14th via Don Giovanni Records. “I Don’t Mind It” is just a really good rock song built on a solid foundation of 90s alterna/riot grrrl influence and 80s DIY counterculture. Their take on throwback wisdom surpasses the “revivalist” trap and sounds legitimately right for the upcoming decade.



Singer, Marissa Paternoster, also released Holy Hell under her Noun alter-ego on July 5th.



Krieg: “All Paths To God”

Black Metal is a genre I continue to love and hate with an equal amount of passion, though the work of Neill Jameson, or N. Imperial, won me over earlier this year with his involvement in the supergroup, Twilight. Jameson is releasing his sixth album with Krieg entitled, The Isolationist, and “All Paths To God” conveys as much regard for brutality as it does for sorrow, or even emotion.

I did get to hear some of this album and I truly wish that they’d released “Photographs From An Asylum” as public consumption because it’s one of the eeriest tracks I’ve heard. The bass rhythm alone is enough to warrant nervous response.

The Isolationist will be out October 26th on Candlelight Records.

If you’re interested, read my review of Twilight’s Monument To Time End at Stereokiller.com.

“All Paths To God” is available from Stereogum.com.



The Body: “Even Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss”

The Body’s All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood was released July 27th through At A Loss Recordings and is one of the more disturbing albums I’ve heard. Conceptually, The Body is a two-manned doom orchestra, minimalist in musical happening yet full-bodied in conveyance of dismay and shriek. There were many times while listening to The Body that I wanted to write them off as a band that wanted to come off more important than they actually were, pointing to their simplistic arrangements and reliance on noise for noise’s sake. But, I keep coming back to the album and I realize that the simplicity doesn’t point to a lack of ability, but instead to an opportunity to generate discomfort. That may not be a selling point for some of you reading this, but the fact that The Body is finding what they seek, says that there’s something about them that’s worth consideration.

“Even Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss” is available from Stereogum.com.



Small Black: “Photojournalist”

Small Black will be releasing their new album, New Chain on October 25th through Jagjaguwar. “Photojournalist” is an interesting mix of synth pop, shoegaze and indie pop. It’s catchy as fuck, there’s no denying that.

”Photojournalist”



Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

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