Fighting with the Undertow #3
A monthly playlist of new punk rock, alt rock and indie music tracks
March’s instalment includes The Cure, Mannequin Pussy, Pearl Jam, Chelsea Wolfe, Alkaline Trio and more.
Welcome to Fire Red Sky’s latest playlist of the 20 best punk rock, alt rock and indie music tracks to be released in the last month.
Fighting with the Undertow, a line from the same Bob Mould song as ‘Fire Red Sky’, arrives in the first weekend of the month. The playlist aims to help you (and me) cut through all the new music noise and maybe locate our next favourite band or album.
Being a teenager in thrall to the N.M.E. in the early 90s I followed Nirvana rather than Pearl Jam, buying in to the music press dichotomy that you could be a fan of one or the other. I’ve since come to a healthy appreciation for Ten, but other than Pearl Jam’s debut album nothing else has really grabbed hold of me. ‘Dark Matter’ might change than, with the combination of its clinical instrumentation and Eddie Vedder’s soulful voice, though I’m surprised to hear echoes of Royal Blood in the track
On ‘Cold World’ Death Lens’ infectious post-hardcore betrays the influence of Militarie Gun, with whom they’ve toured, but also the keyboard-driven bombast of The Killers’ early work before they overinflated. It’s a winning combination and the track was the first on the long list for this month’s playlist and was never in any danger of coming off it as I whittled it down to just 20 songs.
Cold World, the album, is out 3 May on Epitaph Records. But where Los Angeles’ Death Lens have been clear about their Turnstile-sized ambitions, the Buffalo hardcore band Spaced fashion an aggressive take on parts of Turnstile’s sound on ‘Rat Race’. It bodes well for the band’s This Is All We Ever Get, which will be out 22 March on Revelation Records.
Those two songs fit well with the English hardcore/Oi! crossover from Mindless on ‘Business as Usual’. It’s a slow-burner that achieves a lot in its two and a half minutes. And doesn’t slather on the working class themes that often come with Oi!, unlike say Clobber, who sometime make me feel like I’m cos-playing just by listening to them.
There’s also a good dose of indie pop on this month’s playlist, with Mannequin Pussy, The Umbrellas and Cherym. The latter, a trio from Northern Ireland, recently released their debut album on Alcopop! Records and the punky ‘Colourblind’ is one of its standout tracks.
Speaking of standouts, and despite a name that wouldn’t be out of place on a doom metal festival bill, Acid Tongue’s psychedelic disco tale ‘Acid on the Dancefloor’ is hugely entertaining, the sort of song that makes you smile without it being a joke and successfully avoids the sense of novelty that afflicted Electric Six.
This month’s playlist also features some of the garage rock/power pop that seems to be everywhere at the moment. The Sleeveens offer an economical take on it with ‘Metallica Font’, making lyrical cliches sound fresh and bringing a modern take on Dr Feelgood’s sound. From Split System there’s the raw, revved up Australian sound of ‘Hold It’.
So dive in to the playlist for all that and some modern punk rock from Alkaline Trio and Hot Water Music, boundary-pushing sounds from Fucked Up with No Age and Chelsea Wolfe, and the shoegazey-electronica of Not Me But Us.
Playlist image and main image by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
