Earlier this month, Minneapolis punk trio The Bloodies  put out their debut record, Salem Bitch Trials . The band is made up of vocalist Holly Axelrod, bassist Kim Crimson, and guitarist Chelsea Oxblood with Jeremy Klash handling drums for recording the record.  Salem Bitch Trials  would easily feel at home on a "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" soundtrack with its personal blend of goth, horror, and hooky pop-punk. However, there's more going on just underneath the record than meets the eye. The last few lines of the album's closer,  "The most dangerous thing you can be in this world is a pretty girl who knows what she is doing,"  serves as its thesis. The trio spends the 22-minute run time outlining and challenging the shortcomings felt by femme people in the music industry. Leading up to the closer, The Bloodies examine the power held by a scene's gatekeepers, specifically through the lens of a woman scorned. The band walks a fine line between the tongue-i...

(Cover art by Lydia Williams) We've missed St. Paul's Keep for Cheap . It's been just over a year since they released one of the best EPs of 2019 (and maybe all time?) with Get Along . Towards the end of the winter, the band started playing some new songs regularly at gigs. Attendees of those shows were blessed with a version of the band's incredible new single "Forgive Me." Written by Kate Malanaphy, "Forgive Me" is the natural next step for Keep for Cheap's sound. The twangier elements reach a new level, culminating in a full-on country guitar solo from guitarist Ted Tiedemann. Idyllic lyricism summons uncertain emotions until they burst into clarity through the cloudiness. And my God, the vocal harmonies will always knock me out. To get to the heart of the new song, we asked Malanaphy a few questions via email — read their answers below. While reading, why not listen to "Forgive Me" on repeat for the rest of the day? Forgive Me by Ke...

We've been waiting a long while for new music from Abe Anderson, Cannon Falls' resident producer extraordinaire. Not because he hasn't been busy — he's released two albums with two different bands in the last three months alone, on top of recording work and launching a YouTube channel . But it's been far longer since he's released any solo music. From his 2019 debut EP Slacker  onward, there's been a handful of varied yet uniformly excellent singles; however, nothing too definitive. The wait is over with "Love You More," the first single from his forthcoming debut record. It's Anderson's shortest song to date, but it revels in its brevity. Written at the start of lockdown as a tribute to his partner, "Love You More" glows warmly with gracious dedication. Hints of new wave peak in between spidery guitar lines. It's a far cry from the grungy pop-punk Anderson was putting out just over a year ago, but the songwriting has held tru...

(Cover art by Ryan K. Hulsey ) Productivity has come in flashes for a lot of people — before, during, and after the first (and now hopefully second) quarantine lockdowns. I'm not totally sure when Alien Book Club 's Anita Bauer started working on her new solo single, "Jet Set Radio Futureless," but it hardly matters. Even without a title alluding to the early 00's video game Jet Set Radio Future , this song sounds beamed in from a different timeline. From the very first seconds, your head is sent spinning. Flamenco guitar charges in immediately, setting the scene for a brief moment. Then, any possible expectations are thrown out of the window of a moving car as 90's breakbeats start pounding and almost 100 gecs-like vocals crackle through aging stereo speakers. Each seemingly disparate sound collides like bighorn rams headbutting the absolute hell out of each other, but instead of causing bovine brain damage, it sets off musical fireworks. Somehow, Bauer even...

Tulsa, Oklahoma's Cliffdiver always operates with every cylinder firing at maximum capacity. The sextet stuffs as much as possible into every song until it's just about ready to burst. Following their 2019 EP At Your Own Risk  and last March's "Water Temple" single, they're back with the ebullient new track "Gas City." In more ways than one, "Gas City" is a new step for Cliffdiver. For starters, it's their first song featuring vocals from Briana Wright, who adds a wonderful flare to the anthemic chorus. It also might be the most encouraging song the band has ever released. The song's title has nothing to do with the tiny city in Indiana ; instead, it comes from the core lyric "you need to gas up all of your homies / so they won't give up." Cliffdiver absolutely owns this pay-it-forward wholesomeness, offering a lift to the listener's spirits. The song's supportive messaging is matched by its the over-the-top t...

(Cover art by Taylor Adams) Last Friday, Atlanta math-punk trio Champagne Colored Cars released the lead single for their forthcoming debut Tourism , an exciting foray into new sonic territory for the band. The shining Midwest emo they played with on 2017's EP  comes into focus on "Fever Dream: Season 3."  Inspired by tourmates like New Jersey's Invalids , the band started working on the songs that would end up on Tourism  almost immediately after releasing their 2018 split with Sleepy Limbs . "We stopped trying to worry about fitting into a specific subgenre or anything like that, which honestly helped our ideas flow a lot smoother and easily," said vocalist/guitarist Tyler Perkins. The songs started coming together quickly, but CCC took their time to settle into each one. Nathan Hardy, guitarist/vocalist of Microwave , came on board to engineer the record, and Jon "Steel Wolf" Markson of Taking Meds mixed it. Tourism by Champagne Colored Cars ...

Fox Teeth  -  Tite!  (self-released)   I'm always thrilled to find new bands who combine two of my favorite genres: emo and shoegaze. Is emo-gaze a thing? I almost hope not, because that name is horrendous, even if the music itself is extremely up my alley. However, most bands playing with influences from those two venerated genres end up swinging to one side more than the other. You either get the blissed-out heaviness of a band like Gleemer or something more in-line with janglier bands like Thank You, I'm Sorry, where the only shoegaze thing about them is the use of reverb. New Jersey trio Fox Teeth split the difference in the best way on their new record Tite! Every part of  Tite! , the band's first release since 2019's Poets & Ghosts  EP, unifies their influences in a pure distillation of potent songwriting. It accomplishes everything that a band wants a first record to accomplish, a level-up in every way. Fox Teeth clearly held that mindset going i...

Things have changed up a bit since we last heard from Zaq Baker . The Minneapolis piano rocker teased towards his sophomore record (titled  Good Kid Manic Summer  at the time) with a pair of video   performances in the winter, but now his plans have been adjusted. Instead of a spring release for Good Kid , Baker is planning to release a different album, titled Cardio , sometime before the end of 2020. "I Wanna Be Your Night Owl" is our first taste. He retains a sense of youthful earnestness on the song, which shouldn't be surprising given the teenage melodrama that has informed his music since 2017's Housewarming  EP. Baker describes the song as telling "a simple story of yearning, a little crush, and staying up late." All of this is immediately evident from the title alone. A veritable murderer's row of collaborators help enliven the piano-driven elegance of Baker's storytelling. Musicians from all across the Twin Cities contribute — Kremblems ...

(Cover art by Kara Slamka) ghostar - A Haunting in Two Parts  (self-released)   It was inevitable. After the breakout success of 2018's Hereditary , it was only a matter of time before some band sampled one of its iconic scenes. In the case of the new double-single from Madison's ghostar, Toni Collette's dinnertime freakout is the first thing we hear. What ensues is just over seven minutes of potent, multi-faceted music. ghostar bill themselves as a post-rock band first and foremost, which is surprising for a band who has never released a song that exceeds the six minute mark. Instead of getting lost in the swirl of anthemic crescendo-core, the trio plays around with a variance of guitar-centric genres, ranging from yelpy 90s emo to burnt-out shoegaze. The highlights of their music aren't found in any individual sound; rather, they're most present in the way they weave them all together, like knots of thorny vines climbing the side of a house. "Part I: Mortuar...