Oh? What’s this? The February 2024 edition of Cool Stuff dropped just last week, and we’re already back for more? That’s fuckin’ right, kids! We’re moving to a weekly format. That means more album recs for you. Less writing for me. Less reading for you. And most importantly more album recs for you (and less writing for me).
You see, things are going to work a little differently around these parts now. Instead of doing a write up for every album, as much as they all deserve it, I’m only going to write about the Coolest Album of the Week, which will be posted after a list of seriously great recommendations that you should also totally check out. I fucking hate writing about music. It’s awful and mostly pointless, but I love giving recs. So everyone wins with this hot new rebrand.
Let’s get started with…
The Coolest Stuff of The Week | March 6th
Uranium Club Band – Infants Under The Bulb
Genres: Post-punk, punk, math rock
The Narcotix – Dying
Genres: Psychedelic, afro, alternative
meth. – SHAME
Genres: Post-hardcore, noise rock, noisecore, screamo
Stay Inside – Ferried Away
Genres: Post-hardcore, emo, screamo
Modern Life Is War – Tribulation Worksongs
Genres: Punk, hardcore
Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd
Genres: Folk, jazz, progressive rock
Attic Ted – Starfish As Man
Genres: Art rock, art punk, post-punk, weirdo gothic
MANNEQUIN PUSSY – I Got Heaven
Genres: Punk, noise rock, rock
Naked Objects – Disasters
Genres: Post-punk, punk, no wave, math rock
BO NINGEN – The Holy Mountain Live Score
Genres: Post-punk, psychedelic, krautrock, soundtrack
Thee U.F.O. – Beaming A Moments Reflection
Genres: Krautrock, psychedelic, shoegaze
Staś Czekalski – Przygody
Genres: Experimental, lofi pop, ambient
Mulva – Bitter Form
Genres: Indie rock, noise pop, rock
Wax Teeth – A Constant State Of Suspense
Genres: Post-hardcore, post-punk, punk
Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced
Genres: Punk, noise rock, hardcore
At times, this feels like an attack on me, personally. The write up accompanying this album says this band looks to dismember contemporary adult life, but I’m pretty sure the band just followed me around in secret and decided to dismember my life. Now, I could use this space and limited platform to defend myself or I could say you got me. I’ll go with the second. You got me, Pissed Jeans. You really got me.
Let’s start with the song embedded above, “Everywhere is Bad”. While not the absolute best song on this magnificent album of dogshit piling, it does serve as an unofficial mission statements of sorts. In the song, band members list off difference places that might not be bad while frontman Matt Korvette dismisses each one. My home state of Ohio only manages a “yeah right” with no further explanation needed. That one hurt. But the point of the exercise of this song is to look at the downside of every imaginable place, although with a coy smirk. And that’s the point of this album.
This is an album written, at least in part, as a reaction to marriage, adulthood, fatherhood and divorce. Some of that experienced and some of that observed, I’m sure. But despite the tongue in cheek, snide, often cynical nature of these songs, they feel lived in. I’m saying that from the perspective of some dad whose marriage unexpectedly fell apart over the last few years. The jokes, the sarcasm, and even the turn of warm optimism in the final song “Moving On” all feel like they come from a place of hurt and learning and recovery. The way this changes a person and skews their outward lens of the world, both hardens and softens them at the same time, that’s all here, too. Lyrically, this a document of personal truths, whether they’re couched in wit or not.
Of course, simply none of that shit would matter if the music sucked, but lucky for all of us, it doesn’t.
There’s an amazing sense of pace across these 12 songs, propelled by the genius of Sean McGuinness, who just might be the lifeblood of this band… even though I did just spend three goddamn paragraphs talking about lyrical themes and other bullshit. That’s abnormal for me, though. Fucking sue me. Each beat feels like an actual push forward, an invitation to the rest of the band to keep up and stay up, which they do.
Randy Huth is most assuredly McGuinness’ rhythmic equal on bass, rumbling and thumping like an unseen monster approaching in a horror movie. And Brad Fry alternates between catchy riffs and weird shit on guitar, which is exactly the perfect place for punk guitar to sit. Everyone moves together as a unit of shit-flinging, noise-making fun. That’s punk beauty, kids.
But now that I’ve said so many nice things about Pissed Jeans, maybe they can spend their next album being nice to me specifically. Okay?