February has always been a little underrated as a winter month, imo. Like, obviously December has the holidays that we mostly associate with snow, and of course January is right after, so those are definitely winter months. But in February, it’s like “Hey, there’s Valentine’s Day, and Spring Training for baseball is right around the corner, and this is the shortest month of the year, so spring is basically here!”
But not this year. While I always expect a few curveballs from February, this time it was straight up disrespectful, weather-wise, especially in Texas. Thankfully, our power didn’t go out (although we did have a pipe burst and ended up w/out water for a few days), so it’s hard to complain too much. One of my friends in a neighboring county literally chopped up furniture for their fireplace so they wouldn’t freeze. No school for two weeks (one for the storm, and another for dealing w/the fallout of school damage and water boil notices)!
Enough about the weather, here’s some good music, posted in the order it came out.
War Dreams – Baby Boy (February 2nd, self-released)
I’m a sucker for Texas punk bands, and the fact that something besides car dealerships and housing developments is coming out of Hutto (it was recently ranked as the 18th best Austin suburb to live in) is rad. Earnest, aggressive, and maybe a little out of tune at times, a little bit of 90’s alternative rock w/some punk fury. I dig it. Austin has a huge music scene, but it’s pretty eclectic, not much of a punk scene, so to speak, so it’d be cool to see these if these guys can make a name for themselves there, once live music becomes a thing again.
On A Hiding To Nothing – We’ll Probably Be Fine (February 8th, self-released)
I’ll be honest, I’m a little surprised that this was self-released, I’ve seen plenty of decent labels across the pond in the UK that seem like they’d be perfect to release this London quartet’s debut record, especially with a few quality EPs under their belt. I came across OAHTN on a CPRW comp, and for a genre (fast, melodic skate punk) that’s not particularly known for skilled lyricism and story telling, they do a good job of painting word pictures while you’re playing air drums in the car. “Dave” has been on repeat, but loads of other good tunes on here as well.
The Ouija Chords – Jupiter Talisman (February 9th, self-released)
This is The Ouija Chords second abbreviated release, all of the mostly-instrumental variety. While I’m not a connoisseur of this style of music, idk, I’d say it’s like a mix between goth-surf and like an old western? What it is is cool and not like a lot of other stuff I listen to, so that’s something. On “The Unquiet Grave”, they actually take a hymn I remember from my church-going days and make it sound more interesting than it has any right to be.
Nice Surprise – Nice Surprise 7″ (February 26th, self-released)
idk why their bandcamp page says 2/26 when I know I bought this on the first Friday (bandcamp Friday) of the month, but it’s fine, I’ll talk about it here. Nice Surprise is one of the guys from Riverboat Gamblers and Broken Gold (both great Austin bands) and one of his friends that drums and just started his own studio, and was born out of wanting to test out the studio’s recording qualities. It’s fuzzy and loud and really fuzzy and has a real DIY vibe to it. I also appreciate the symmetry of having a band named Nice Surprise writing a song called “Nice Surprise” and putting it out on a 7″ called Nice Surprise. A little surprising, actually, but it’s a nice kind of surprise.
Broken Gold – Held By A Thread (February 19th, Chicken Ranch Records)
Speaking of Broken Gold, here are a few songs they put out on 10″ vinyl this month. Man, I really dig this group, big Replacements-vibes (although that’s a band that for whatever reason I haven’t gotten into, a few bands I really like are Replacements worshippers, including these guys). A little reminiscent of one of my favorite records from last year, Made To Rust by a band from Corvalis, OR named Dumb Luck, though more on the rock side than the punk side. The last track is a Bryan Adams tune called “Kids Wanna Rock” that I had never heard of before, but after checking it out, dang it’s a good song and they’re able to improve on it while still staying pretty true to the original. Awesome stuff here, need more Broken Gold in my life.
The Hold Steady – Open Door Policy (February 19th, Positive Jams)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a top 3 all-time movie for me. The sequel is not that good (it’s fine), but last year, I was very nervous about Bill & Ted: Face the Music (the end of the trilogy). Would it be good? Would it somehow make the others worse? Did we really need another Bill & Ted? The answers were “yes”, “not at all”, and “definitely”. On The Hold Steady’s eighth studio album, I found myself asking similar questions. Do we need an eighth record from these guys? Other than Spoon, no band (that I like) has put out more than like, six good records, and I think even tHS would say that they peaked a few records ago. That said, this is good. Is it going to replace Separation Sunday as my favorite tHS record? Definitely not. Is it still fun and sing-along-able? Of course. Far from perfect but still worth listening to, my main critique is that lead singer Craig Finn, who sounds pretty animated in various spots on previous records, is more subdued here, and I wish he was more “out there”. “Spices” and “Heavy Covenant” are my faves here, but I think “Unpleasant Breakfast” is the most unique song in the Hold Steady canon (I think it is the most polarizing song on the record, and didn’t like it at first, but I’ve mostly come around. All in all, it’s like pizza – even when it’s not great, it’s still good, and better than what those weirdos over there are probably eating.
Ten Things I Hate About You – The Second Release (February 21st, self-released)
Ten Things I Hate About You is not only a great movie (seriously, Heath Ledger is great, my wife and I actually watched it on Valentine’s Day), it’s also a great band from Hawaii that put out one of my favorite EP’s last year (called Three Things I Hate About You). While there are no snippets from the movie they named themselves after, this is still an interesting release. It starts out w/a six minute dreary emo track, then cuts to a cover of a Hoobastank hit from 2003 (full disclosure, I kinda liked their debut but couldn’t get into anything else they ever did) that is miles better than the original, and then ends with a reworking of a song off their previous EP that is a lot slower and super emo as well. Overall, I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as their first one, but still a band that I’m looking forward to hearing more from.
Mikey Erg – S/T (February 26th, Rad Girlfriend Records)
I’ve heard of Mikey Erg for a long time – he’s in a ton of bands and has put out a ton of music, but I haven’t given him a fair shake to win me over until now. I think I picked a good time. He dropped an EP last year that I checked out but, idk, was a little too poppy for me, wasn’t really my thing. On S/T, he’s touted a “return” to a more punk sound, and when your record cover is a riff on The Clash’s S/T debut, you’d better not miss. He doesn’t. This is the straight up 90’s punk that I grew up – the Green Day cover plays pretty close to the original, the single “Rumblestrip” is my favorite song of 2021 so far, and I really think this will be a top 10 record of the year when the times come. Love this so much. Edit: I’ve listened to this like six or seven times and I’m still not sick of it yet.
I’m not sure if I’ll keep doing Spotify playlists for each month, but I’ve liked doing it so far. Kinda tricky for those smaller releases (Ten Things I Hate About You and The Ouija Chords are not on the site), so it’s a tight twelve songs this month, two each from the rest of the bands.
Radio Marcus 