Tag Archive for: underground music

FLESH PANTHERS, “I Wish I Woulda Known”

Traveling through the heartache of “it ain’t you, it’s me” to the relief of “no more lonesome road” in under four minutes, Flesh Panthers’ “I Wish I Woulda Known” feels like time flattening on itself. The Chicago band’s fuzzed-out sound is direct and unfussy, with a bubbly bassline under hard-stomping drums and psych-tinged guitar lines echoing The Yardbirds’ brand of shambling rock and roll. The band describes its sound as “flower punk,” and it’s an apt way to summarize the track: as the confused rage of teenage heartbreak evolves into a chorus of sunny “na na na”s, it’s a thrill to listen to Flesh Panthers bridge the gaps between peace, love, and raging.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #110 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

HALLELUJAH THE HILLS, “People Keep Dying (And No One Can Stop It)”

From the rolling guitars carrying us through suburban houses and hospices to Ryan H. Walsh’s growling vocals that eventually erupt into throat-shredding yells, every part of this song feels ready to burst. It makes sense, because Hallelujah The Hills’ “People Keep Dying (And No One Can Stop It)” is grappling with a sad existential fact: with life, comes death. Everywhere they turn, from “the pages of a book nobody read” to “the corners of a song nobody needs,” the chanted chorus returns with the only honest answer: people keep dying and no one can stop it. Still, the Boston band exports us to another dimension in this track and releases that bubbling tension with never-ending guitar licks and expertly layered theremin throughout.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #110 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Ep 122 – ‘Plight of the Worker’ With music by: Harriers of Discord, Astronotun Bir Gunu, Annabell Chairlegs, Benito Plaza, The Pack A.D., The Humms, Sweet Pill 

Best of the underground, week of Sept 8, 2020: Jobs we have known and disliked. First shot at a song about Middlemarch. Also, great great music. (All podcasts and reviews are on www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.)

This week we played:

    • Cheers to Future Good Days by Astronotun Bir Gunu

    • Outside by Annabelle Chairlegs

    • Feel So Right by Benito Plaza (Prerelease)
    • Cobra Matte (live) by The Pack A.D.

    • Forward Cue by The Humms

    • Jenny by Sweet Pill

    • Velvet Tongue by Harriers of Discord

Ep 121 – ‘Follow Yourself Around’ With music by: Rich Girls, Derek Frye, Public Eye, A Place to Bury Strangers, Satanic Togas, Bodega, Tenement

Best of the underground, week of Sept 1, 2020: Victory laps. The Kennedys talk themselves into making a documentary and then talk themselves out of it. Also, great great music. (All podcasts and reviews are on www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.)

This week we played:

    • The Fighter by Rich Girls

    • Stuck by Derek Frye

(prerelease)

    • Descending by Public Eye

    • I Walk Away by A Place to Bury Strangers

    • Underworld Cassingle Club 08.08.20 by Satanic Togas

    • Truth by Bodega

    • Your Sway (Keeps the Rot Away) by Tenement

Ep 120 – ‘No Ragrets’ With music by: Hotdoggrrrl and the Sesame Buns, Crag Mask, Strange Unit, Shaken Nature, Loser Company, Electric Shit, Icarus Tyree


Best of the underground, week of August 25, 2020: John’s story about wearing electric gold knickers, some mildly useful advice for musicians and also…great music. (All podcasts and reviews are on www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.)

This week we played:

    • Sorry for an Instant by Hotdoggrrl and the Sesame Buns

    • Waver by Crag Mask

    • Nail, Meet Hammer by Strange Unit

    • Cowboy by Shaken Nature

    • Blueberry Skies by Loser Company

    • All My Troubles by Electric Shit

    • The Gravity Song by Icarus Tyree

Good Trauma “21 Days”

Eli Raymer is the artist behind Good Trauma – I don’t think Eli Raymer understands how happy his music makes me. I really like pop music and people who understand hooks and melody and classic song writing. Eli plays drums for just about every badass band in the Asheville underground music scene – and when he writes songs he writes these catchy heartfelt pop songs. It is wonderful music. Even if the subject matter is a little darker – the passage of 21 days he spent isolated, in hospital, waiting to heal and get his life back. 

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #107 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Bad Molly “Lucy Furs”

The direct reference to “Lucy Furs” and the dank atmosphere of this country ballad, the country of abandoned crossroads at midnight, embraces the darker side of music. This is a song that Kieth and Mick would have been happy to drag up from the basement of Mansion Nellcote. Rich reverb drenched guitars and Peter Elwell crooning about the lady of the song watching life roll on by from a fuzzy distance. The classic almost doo-wop female backing is perfect. 

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #107 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Secret Shame- Dissolve

Local Asheville band Secret Shame, released an album in 2019 that not only brought them into the NYT spotlight with rave reviews, but brought on a wave of new followers and a deeper awareness to the bands roots and honest sharing of the behind the scenes life of its members. Lyrically and musically, a beautiful tribute to the human landscape; exploring both the light and the dark. Their new album Pure, released this past June once again showcases the bands dynamic range of sound, think mid 80’s Cure and post punk, but by no means to be pigeonholed into one sound. Their track Dissolve, had me swept up in a joyful fury the moment the sound cane in. Where New Order left off in the hearts of many, including my own- Secret Shame picks it right back up. The band sums up their sound to “dark post punk”, giving way to a sound very much echoes the lyrical and musical sounds of mid 80’s Cure. This band is good, I mean really good. Honest about their direction and meaning behind their sound. Where they are headed, we are surely to follow.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #107 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

THE GHOST WOLVES, “End of It All”

“End of It All” sounds like it’s from a different world, filled with foreboding images and poppy doom. Taking cues from cabaret rock, The Ghost Wolves have made a carnivalesque tune, full of lyrical nods to plagues and witches that beckon you in with an off-kilter rhythm. The haunting vocals and tight harmonies layered over echoing drums lend an eerie atmosphere to the song, but the heart of this sideshow spectacle is the pumping organ that plays throughout. Piercing vocalizations that make up the second half of the song are another highlight, and a good metaphor for the song as a whole; tumbling over one another in a dizzying and intoxicating mix, they draw you deeper into this macabe funhouse mirror of a song before disappearing like a ghost.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #107 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.