Nocona – “Stabby Mike” 

Nocona – “Stabby Mike” 

Is Nocona huge yet? From the beginning of the song, I felt like I was stumbling upon greatness hidden in plain sight. By the end of Stabby Mike I was invested mentally and emotionally in Nocona. The beginning of love, the excitement of digging through their catalog, the growth of something special and something cool that maybe nobody knows about. Amazing. 

This one catches you in the cheek with a fish hook and just when you realize it, the entire band blasts in with a jerk that pulls you to your feet. It’s just a thing that happens sometimes, yeah, but that thing that happens is magic. Magic accompanied by vintage guitars, upright bass, slide guitar, western shirts… Why isn’t every band this cool?

The instrumentation is so textured and woven together, yet upon analytical examination each instrument has breathing room around it. You can feel the wooden boards of the room from your ears, smell the fireplace, and the leather on your arm. Or, is that just me? Damn. Get on my level and check these guys out. 

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #106 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

The Prostitutes – “Shake, Rattle, & Die”

The Prostitutes – “Shake, Rattle, & Die”

The Prostitutes have been around a while, and Shake, Rattle, & Die is one of their releases from this year. Aptly named for a year filled with certain death and doom, The Prostitutes deliver a raging take on bumming a ride from a stranger while they are out of their mind, all in under two minutes. It’s punk rock, raging and boiling over, recorded with all the attitude you would expect.

 I feel like the song could be the venting that took place after the awkward situation unfolded, we’ve all been there for sure. 

Shake, Rattle & Die is gritty, raw, and energetic. It’s perfect.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #106 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

The Deathbots – Just Go

The Deathbots – Just Go

The Deathbots was conceived as a brawling mix between Bad Religion and Johnny Cash, that combo of super speedy melodic punk and killer bad-ass country. Just Go is the epitome of this sound. Tight So-Cal inspired sound wreckage, with wrenched, riffing guitars and bass, driving drums – and then the melody and lyrics have such a soft heart – “The only days I don’t regret are the days I spent with you.” I try to write lyrics and this line makes me jealous – something so simple and beautiful and true. Something Johnny Cash would sing if he was fronting a So-Cal punk band.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #106 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Anti-Social Club – “Empty”

Anti-Social Club – “Empty”

Anti-Social Club leans back into familiar glam and electronica for their latest single “Empty” – this is an Erasure, Yaz, David Bowie inspired track. There is darkness and death and cancer and a bleakness that fills the song with a chill – “there’s a pain in his chest and a weakness in her knees – there’s a cancer inside and it’s making it hard to breathe” – but Anti-Social Club also understands song dynamic and a chorus that rises and offers hope. Bonus points for the wonderful female vocalist that adds real beauty to the chorus. 

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #106 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Stevie and the Sleaze- You Didn’t Tell Me ‘Bout the Jones

Stevie and the Sleaze- You Didn’t Tell Me ‘Bout the Jones

The track “You Didn’t Tell Me ‘Bout the Jones” comes from the bands new self titled album. Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona and boasting ex members from The Raincoats, US Bombs, Mighty Sphincter, and Puppy and the Hand Jobs. When most think of the punk music scene in the late 70’s, they think about its origins in NYC with the sounds coming out of the raucous CBGB’s whose initial intention was to “feature its namesake musical styles but became a forum for American punk and new wave bands” like The Ramones, Blondie, Misfits, and Television and becoming a “cultural phenomenon” in late 1976 UK with The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned. By late ‘77, the influence of punk music and it’s co-existing sub culture, had spread across the globe.
By 1978, Phoenix was home to a growing and very much “ferocious” punk scene pioneered by the band The Consumers; whose first show was only par for the course and had punk musicians like Ron Rexless, singer of the Might Sphincter and “one of the godfathers of punk in Phoenix” feeling “beat up on a routine basis…but I loved it.” The less then 2 minute song packs a serious punch and a major nod to the American punk sounds of the late 70’s. Stevie and the Sleaze bring their own voice to the Phoenix punk music scene; the journey, the messages and lifestyle of anything “anti-authoritarian”. The track “You Didn’t Tell Me ‘Bout the Jones”, brings us into the world of not giving a fuck, the reality in the harshness of copping with smack- “you didn’t tell me ‘bout the ache in my bones…” The layered vocals between Stevie Davis, bacpac and Jaime Paul Lamb, during the second half of the song, brings a musical conversation to the stage and highlights not just the true relationship one can have with their drug of choice, but the voice behind what punk music brings to the forefront of its genre.
As the song comes to a close, the instruments abruptly end with the lone vocals cooling saying, “I need another hit” leaving the listener admittedly wanting more as well.
Flattening The Curve by Extradition Order

Flattening The Curve by Extradition Order

Extradition Order picks up where Talking Heads left off. The choppy synth intro and rhythm-heavy instrumentation is accompanied by a mantra of New Wave styled lyrics, that evolve and settle back down with a deliberate dynamic that I can’t help but appreciate. Extradition Order ties in pop sensibilities and alternative eccentricities that play off each other in a hook-heavy, fashionable, and fun way. It’s whimsical and wacky, Avant garde and artistic as it gets, this song plays like the begging to be interpreted modern art you love.
Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #104 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.
Venomous Pinks “Todos Unidos”

Venomous Pinks “Todos Unidos”

This hardcore street punk only works this well if the musicians are this tight, compact, together, gang-like, and with the 100% self-belief and alignment with the message. Hardcore, like this, is best compared to the work of monks or mystics, when only absolute devotion creates the wisdom, the magic, and any questioning or self-doubt ruins the illusion. “Stand up and fight!” Also, an additional plus is the back-up singing in the chorus, I love some ohhhhs which add such great dynamic and melody. 

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #104 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

THE RIZZOS, “BRESLIN”

THE RIZZOS, “BRESLIN”

Taking its name from one of New York’s iconic Chelsea pubs, “Breslin” by The Rizzos continues the Brooklyn band’s track record of crafting catchy, moody rock and roll. Megan Mancini’s lead guitar hook sets the loose tempo and within moments the drums and bass appear and erupt, signaling that you’re in for another rocket ride of a song from Brooklyn’s go-to underground garage rockers. The group specializes in this brand of three-chord chaos, taking propulsive rhythms to their distorted limits under Mancini’s introspective lines like, “The stars, they can erupt/But they always burn out too.” “Breslin” is a song about longing and waiting, but The Rizzos have brilliantly given it a rhythm that demands you move (and maybe, as the song seems to imply, move on).

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #104 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Rosie & The Rats – “Greenwich Mean Time”

Rosie & The Rats – “Greenwich Mean Time”

It’s a strange path and a strange time for relationships – but how do you categorize the connections between individuals who mark each other for the rest of their lives, but are based on a fleeting encounter, based on barriers of time and distance, based on a failed connection. The heart of “Greenwich Mean Time” examines these connections and disconnections. The song starts with a minimalist bass riff and expands and expands into piano and a wall of gorgeous harmony – you’ve moved on but there’s no forgetting.  You’ve moved on but there’s no forgetting. This song is an elevation of the human connection – and an understanding that this time it is not meant to be, this mean time.