April was nuts. We *officially* sold our house and moved from a town of about 7,000 to a town of about 80,000, and after a half a dozen job interviews, I finally landed a teaching job for next school year. We nailed down a closing date for the house that we’re building (July 15th), which is very cool, so now we are down to closing out the rest of the school year (NINETEEN SCHOOL DAYS LEFT HOLY COW) and spending what little free time we have exploring our new city.
I don’t know if it’s all the hectic/exciting life stuff that has kept me from finding a lot of good, new music this month, but pickings are pretty slim (for my picky music tastes). I normally like to get out this post at the beginning of the month, but this time I waited (smartly) until my buddy Steve at The Doesn’t Suck posted his picks for the month and see what stuff slipped under my radar. I don’t know that the Venn diagrams of our music taste have a ton of overlap, but I almost always find something great from him every month, and this was no exception.
Maybe because I spent a lot of time this month packing up stuff for the house (and also throwing out a ton of stuff that we had accumulated during the last five years in our old house), I was looking for things that sparked A LOT of joy instead of a normal amount of joy. If I’m being honest, of the 24 releases that I’ve shared this year (eight each month), there’s only a handful that are still in pretty solid rotation – Lxs Diamantes, Cluttered, and Camp Trash from January, Mikey Erg from February, and Tigers Jaw and Fake Fruit from March.
Perhaps I’m being more selective, but regardless of how everything holds up, I only post music on here that I paid for at some point.
OH! Another great thing from this month was that Marco from Salinas Records sent me an advanced digital copy of the new Quaker Wedding 7″ (and told me that they have a new full length coming out this year). It rips and Marco is awesome, so even though that isn’t showing up on this rundown, that’s something else I’ve been listening to a lot this month. On a related note, Salinas Records is celebrating it’s 18th anniversary, so coupon code “eighteen” gets you 20% off their store, I’d recommend the LPs by Quaker Wedding, Distants, Big Nothing, Vacation, and Second Narrows, but they have lots of good stuff. I am of course not being paid to say this, I just love that label.
Talk Show Host – Blood in the Sand (April 2nd, Wiretap Records)
I started following this account on Twitter because the person running it had really good taste in music, and it turns out that he’s the bass player for Talk Show Host, a pop punk band based out of Toronto. They put out “This Monologue” as a stand alone single that I really loved, and I’m looking forward to their debut LP Mid-Century Modern later on next month. “Blood in the Sand” is one of the singles off that record, but to be honest I’m trying not to listen to any of the other singles off it because I want to absorb the record as a whole and not fixate on the singles. Pre-ordered the vinyl for this one, should be good.
Courting – Grand National (April 9th, Nice Swan Records)
This was the first of two finds from The Doesn’t Suck‘s Scrap Heap. I feel like this is the year of post-punk, and Courting’s dancey sound is quite a bit different from what I normally listen to, but fits in pretty well with dumb, a really good Canadian post punk band that’s not into capitalization. Only four songs on this one, but a good, fun listen.
War Dreams – Lull the Sky (April 15th, self-released)
I already spotlighted one of these guys’ EPs on here earlier this year, but the dudes from Hutto, TX dropped another pair of songs, and I feel invested now, like I need to be their biggest fan. Or at least pay a dollar or two for their music. Either way, a lot of promise for these dudes, even if I probably preferred their first release to their last one. Oh jeez, I’m already saying “I liked their older stuff” for a band that’s a few months old, I’m so annoying.
Remember Sports – Like A Stone (April 23rd, Father/Daughter Records)
This was the big find from Steve. He gave this one a 4.9, basically an Honorable Mention on his blog, and dang, this is hands down my best find from him this year. Not particularly close either. I am really into this record – great mix of indie-punk and alt-country, fits in with bands like Big Nothing and Hop Along. I’ve listened to it back to back probably a half dozen times in the past few days and I can’t get enough of it.
We Are Joiners – Black & Blue – Single (April 28th, self-released)
We Are Joiners is I think just a single dude making a bunch of loud, lo-fi noise, and that’s not normally my thing, but idk I just dig the vibes. I got one of their tapes at the beginning of the year and it’s good.
Hadda Be – Another Life (April 30th, Last Night From Glasgow)
Another Life is a huge ear worm – every time I listen to it, there’s something new I hear or I come away with another favorite song. Like, it’s one that I listened to all the way through because I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not, and then I had to listen to it again because I couldn’t tell if I really liked it, and then I had to listen to it again because I needed to know how much I liked it, and then I was like man, I need to just relax and enjoy this because it’s good. I took Miles and Ollie to the dog park and afterwards it started raining and then just kind of drove around in the rain and this was playing the whole time and now I’ll probably always associate it with the dog park and rain. idk if that’s good or bad but this record is definitely good. I’ll admit that I didn’t go the bandcamp route on this one because it was cheaper on iTunes and sometimes I’m just cheap sorry guys.
Anyways, a shorter list than normal (six entries instead of eight, plus three of those releases had just four songs combined) but idk what to tell you that’s just how it be sometimes. Already got some good ones lined up for May, so hopefully that trend continues.
Radio Marcus 