Tag Archive for: underground music

ROBOJOM, “Monster Cookie”

ROBOJOM, “Monster Cookie”

Proving the age-old wisdom – you can sing whatever the hell you want as long as the music is this banging and your singer delivers. A trashy electro song about a monster cookie and a spicy spicy spicy popsicle stick? Maybe this is a metaphor? Or code? I don’t really care. This is amazing fun – and this is what really great art does: calms me down and makes me smile. I’m so glad I live in a universe where there is a total club banger which is both totally hilarious and totally sexy.Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #88 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

THE STYROFOAM TURTLES, “Sad Soul”

THE STYROFOAM TURTLES, “Sad Soul”

I love watching this band – and their great steps along their artistic path. So I know the back story, the previous show, the proposal, the obvious waves of positive energy when Tristen sat down to write this. It is supposed to be about the sad soul – an overly dramatic person acting overly dramatic – but somehow this song is suffused with so much lightness and kindness and hope and love. The bass is so catchy, the accented “ah is wonderful, and then the chord progression in the chorus rises away from the darkness and towards the sun.Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #88 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

UGLY RUNNER, “She Was Your Girl”

UGLY RUNNER, “She Was Your Girl”

It’s easy to tell when a band has a good time together on a stage, but much harder to capture that energy in a studio. But on the short and sweet “She Was Your Girl” by Ugly Runner, confirmation of those good times come in the hoots and hollers behind Stephen Britt’s guitar solo centerpiece: this band simply works well together. With the call-and-response that accompanies Britt’s “I didn’t know she was your girl,” the blues rock charms of The Yardbirds come front and center and smartly underscores the blame game played by the song’s narrator. It’s an intoxicating mix of pitch-perfect pop song construction and garage rock swagger, and stakes out a corner of the scene for Ugly Runner’s unique take on that classic rock sound.Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #88 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

https://uglyrunner.bandcamp.com/album/romanticizer
RADKEY, “Cat & Mouse”

RADKEY, “Cat & Mouse”

From the chainsaw buzz of an opening riff on “Cat & Mouse,” it’s clear that the three brothers of Radkey are here to melt faces, not make friends. And the band doesn’t hold back from there on, with a chorus exclaiming, “Nowhere to hide/He’s going to take your life/No one to cry to/He’s going to take your life” in a baritone that could summon the ghost of Ian Curtis. As machine-gun drums give way to a searing guitar solo, the darkness and tension of the song bursts into a cacophony of “woah”s and a welcome reprise of that opening riff, somehow even more brutal and urgent than at the top of the song. “Cat & Mouse” is a dangerous game that you’ll want to play again and again.Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #88 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

EXTRADITION ORDER, “Baby, What Have You Done For Me Lately?”

EXTRADITION ORDER, “Baby, What Have You Done For Me Lately?”

Enticing harmonies and soft tambourines may not spring to mind when thinking about J. Robert Oppenheimer, but London’s Extradition Order make a compelling case that the sound and subject pair better than you think. Blending stomping rhythms with shimmering guitars, Extradition Order has crafted a self-described “Northern Soul album about the atomic bomb,” but Alastair Harper’s lyrics on “Baby, What Have You Done For Me Lately?” don’t give up the game so easy. Gang of Four-style harmonies punctuate the repeated refrain, “Baby, what have you done for me lately?/I miss your torso, especially when it was unclothed,” which steps away from the specific subject into an accessible portrait of love and longing. Once the horns and voices coalesce in the chorus and the Northern Soul influences shine through, the song transcends into its final form: a kickass kiss-off, more universal and impactful than the man behind the bomb.Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #88 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Ep 90 – `Great Patter’ FEAT: Oh, Rose, Killer Kin, Stovepipe, Never Understand, The Medium

Ep 90 – `Great Patter’ FEAT: Oh, Rose, Killer Kin, Stovepipe, Never Understand, The Medium


Best of the underground, week of Jan 28, 2020: John, who is sick, tells a story about the Cranbries. Funkiness, defined. New Haven, again. Also, great, great music.

This week:

*25, Alive by Oh, Rose

*Here Comes the Killers/Snake Oil by Killer Kin

*I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas by Stovepipe

*Sunshine by Never Understand

*Have a Happy Day by The Medium

(All podcasts and reviews are on our website, www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.) Artists! We like you, good work. 2020. We’re all hanging on ok so far more or less, right

Ep 89 – `Songwriting Secrets’ FEAT: Weeping Icon, The Kindest People, Three Star Hotel, The Beauticians, The Side-Bets

Ep 89 – `Songwriting Secrets’ FEAT: Weeping Icon, The Kindest People, Three Star Hotel, The Beauticians, The Side-Bets

 
Featured songs:

Donna by the Beauticians

Ripe for Consumption by Weeping Icon

Feel’n Bad by The Side-Bets

Your Disaster by The Kindest People

Purr With Me by Three Star Hotel

Best of the underground, week of Jan 21, 2020: Precise instructions on how to play a J-chord, John improvises a song about a pickle, dick picks, and Hedwig. Plus all this MUSIC, and Happy birthday JP! (All podcasts and reviews are on our website, www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.) Artists! We like you, good work. 2020. We’re all hanging on ok so far more or less, right

Song We Like: Science Rat by Gabriel Bernini

Song We Like: Science Rat by Gabriel Bernini

Someone’s been listening to The Kinks and all the universe that followed – that sharp ragged riff and those beautiful pop melodies riding over the top. This is dance-y, catchy, ride in your car or drop this in a bar – this is pure garage bliss. Wanna hear us talk about this song? – Featured on our #87 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

https://dadstacherecords.com/store/gabriel-bernini-sweeties

Song We Like: Hopeless Man by Don Babylon

Song We Like: Hopeless Man by Don Babylon

This is gospel. This is Biblical. An epic soul bearing of a hopeless man. These garage rockers and truth-tellers take on the Americana genre and produce a work of immense depth and beauty. Also – this is one of the best vocalists in the underground scene today. Everything he sings is the truth and vibrates with the cells of my soul.Wanna hear us talk about this song? – Featured on our #87 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.