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MOON PUSSY – DEATH IS COMING and The Coolest Stuff of The Week | May 8th

Kendon Luscher·
Album ReviewsBest of ListsCool Stuff
·May 8, 2024·0 Comments

This has been one of my favorite release weeks this year. The Ghost is Clear Records pitted MOON PUSSY against Doom Beach as Coolest Album of the Week finalists. But that wasn’t all, joining them was Obey Cobra, Usurp Synapse and Darius. Nearly any other week, most of these would win running away with it. But this week wasn’t any other week.

This week was the noise rock, post-punk death pit.

I mean, there are non-finalists here that would have won some other weeks. That’s what kind of week we’re having. That’s life in the pit.

We’ll get all into MOON PUSSY later. (There’s no casual way of saying that without it coming out weird. I’m discovering that the more I write. Noted. Anyway, we’ll talk more about that band later.) First, let’s quick dip on some of the other finalists.

Beside MOON PUSSY, the album I’ve been listening to most is the one from Darius. It’s post-rock with early Mogwai and Explosion in the Sky fed through a post-noise-rock grinder. Doom Beach is filthy and loud and wrenching. Usurp Synapse is weird and surprising. Obey Cobra takes me through all sorts of genres and twists and turns while feeling part of a grand artistic vision. All these albums are amazing.

I hope you’re all super goddamn pumped to check out…

The Coolest Stuff of The Week | May 8th


Obey Cobra – Mwg Drwg

Genres: Alternative, grunge, post-punk

celebration guns – Enough Already

Genres: Math rock, emo, alternative

The Dharma Chain – Nowhere

Genres: Post-punk, shoegaze, punk

Driftmachine & Ammer – Sonic Behaviour

Genres: Experimental, dub, ambient, samples

Nihiloceros – Dark Ice Balloons

Genres: Indie rock, grunge, power pop

Darius – Murmuration

Genres: Post-rock, post-noise-rock, experimental

GRLwood – I Sold My Soul To The Devil When I Was 12

Genres: Scream pop, alternative, noise pop

Valley Street – S/T

Genres: Weirdo punk, punk, rock

Ui – Sidelong

Genres: Post-punk, post-rock, experimental

Tuff Bluff – S/T

Genres: Post-punk, punk, garage

Tex Patrello – Minotaur

Genres: Art pop, chamber pop, experimental pop

Doom Beach – BURDEN

Genres: Noise rock, screamo, punk

Muslimgauze – Zul’m

Genres: Post-punk, alternative, dub

假日貞操 Virgin Vacation – Dapple Patterns

Genres: Instrumental, krautrock, post-rock

Super Fuzz – S/T

Genres: Egg punk, punk, alternative

TI:ED – an urge to feel authentic

Genres: Post-hardcore, punk, alternative

ME REX – Smilodon

Genres: Math rock, indie rock, alternative

Blush – Propaganda

Genres: Art punk, weirdo punk, post-punk

hana vu – Romanticism

Genres: Alternative, indie rock, garage

Usurp Synapse – Polite Grotesqueries

Genres: Screamo, punk, noisecore

Dead Finks – Eve of Ascension

Genres: Punk, noise rock, post-punk

Manic Vila – Mandatory Fun

Genres: Surf rock, alternative, indie rock

ZOLLE – ROSA

Genres: Noise rock, post-metal, rock

Kee Avil – Spine


Genres: Noise pop, experimental pop, alternative

Argiculture – Living is Easy

Genres: Post-metal, metal, post-rock


MOON PUSSY – DEATH IS COMING

Genres: Noise rock, punk, experimental

Like most of my favorite albums, DEATH IS COMING feels like a piece of art existing out of time. Albums like Pixies’ Surfer Rosa or Modest Mouse’s Moon and Antarctica or pick your favorite Sonic Youth album feel just as strange and fresh today as they did 20, 30 or 40 years ago. This is the effect of a group having their own voice, their own language, and speaking to us directly in that tongue. Instead of being stuck in the moment their album was released, they exist in their own moment outside of everything.

And yeah, MOON PUSSY exists in their own pocket of time with their own language and all that shit.

That’s not to say DEATH IS COMING isn’t of the now. Put this band in a lineup with any of the top noise punk bands, and they fit in with the current pulse of the genre. It’s more that this album has the raw brashness and experimental fervor of early punk and underground music mixed with the fidelity and catchiness of 90s grunge, and all of that is tied up with a distinct sense of what exactly works in noise rock — an entire history up until now to inform the band — creating a product that takes from many different musical eras while having an immense sense-of-self.

Oh is that sense-of-self very important and on full display. One aspect you will find about each MOON PUSSY song, and thus the album as a whole, is it essentially never stops. Some noise is always filling the space, and it’s usually Cristina Cuellar’s end-times bass and/or vocals, assisted most often by Cory Hager’s brutalist drums. Guitarist Ethan Hahn serves to color these songs with ugly stabs and odd riffs, filling in the rest of the space or taking over completely when needed.

But this band knows when to let one instrument drop out briefly or have something switch so the songs don’t just drone on and on and on. One thing I harp on a lot in this column is a band’s ability to work with space, and I especially applaud bands who are able to create space through small movements and changes in their arrangements. MOON PUSSY is yet another master at this, able to convey their changes in a small amount of space.

The result is an unrelenting, uncompromising death-grind of noise.

This is their language. This is where they create their meaning and how. Constant, constant movement that carries the listener along out of time and nearly out of mind. If it weren’t so in our faces and unignorable, it would practically be meditative, especially the way Cuellar’s bass lines tend to descend and ascend up and down, carrying us along. But she’s also screaming at us. And the drums start and stop between machine gun rolls. And the guitar squeals at us to pay attention. Yes, it wants us to groove, but we cannot zone out, and none of these songs will allow us to do so.

If I have one forewarning about DEATH IS COMING, it’s to listen to the album as a whole. This is an ALBUM album, meant to be listened to in one held breath. Checking out a track or two here or there is an injustice to the flow and groove these songs create from one to the next. Find a half hour, sit your ass down, turn this up loud and listen.

YouTube player

Before I go, girl, one thing:

If you are a band or label with a newer or lesser-known band with music similar to the kind of music I typically highlight in this column, shoot me a line at pizzafriendsrc at gmail.com and I’ll check out your tunes. Will it make this article? Probably not, but I’ll check it out.

If you enjoyed Cool Stuff, please check out previous installments here.

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AgricultureAlternativeambientAmmerart popArt RockBlushCelebration Gunschamber popDariusDead FinksDoom BeachDriftmachinedubegg punkEmoexperimentalexperimental popgarageGRLwoodgrungehana vuIndie RockinstrumentalKee AvilkrautrockManic VilaMath rockME REXMetalMOON PUSSYMuslimgauzeNihilocerosNoise PopnoisecoreObey CobraPost HardcorePost PunkPost RockPost-Metalpost-noise-rockPower PoppunkRocksamplesScream popScreamoshoegazeSuper Fuzzsurf rockTex PatrelloThe Dharma ChainTI:EDTuff BluffUiUsurp SynapseValley StreetVirgin Vacationweirdo punkZOLLE假日貞操

Kendon Luscher

Kendon is very much into pizza.

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