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...

       To say we've been waiting for this one for a long time would be an understatement. niiice.  is finally back with their first new single since 2019's Never Better , the stellar EP that launched the trio into the national DIY spotlight. "shlonkey kong" is the appetizer to the band's forthcoming second LP, Internet Friends . The band has boiled all the quintessential elements of the NCU (niiice. Cinematic Universe) into one pure song - so potent it'll get you high in a single hit. Guitarist/vocalist Roddie Gadeberg is an absolute master at writing songs that people can scream along to while still detailing incapacitating anxiety and its many side-effects. Their are weed references galore (would it be a niiice. song if there weren't?), but Gadeberg tells us why  he's smoking so much too. As great as weed is, it's still a coping mechanism to deal with self-doubt, back pain, and other problems. Never Better  was perfect proof of the musical synthe...