Fighting with the Undertow #5

A monthly playlist of new punk rock, alt rock and indie music tracks

May's instalment includes Joan Jett, Belle and Sebastian, Beatsteaks, The Decemberists, Narrow Head 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 that inspired the name Fire Red Sky, arrives on the first weekend of each 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.

This month I had about six hours of music to mull over, and I’m sure that barely scratched the surface of what was released, but I won’t be turning to AI-generated punk rock playlists for any shortcuts.

As with previous months, my self-imposed rule of only featuring bands once per release continues – the exception that being the frenetic hardcore of Spaced, who’s ‘Landslide’ snuck onto March’s list, hot on the heels of ‘Rat Race’ appearing in February. So, there’s no sign this month of strong new releases from Ride, Fucked Up, Frank Turner or NOFX.

This instalment of Fighting with the Undertow kicks off with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ newly recorded cover of ‘I’m Set Free’ from The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed. First appearing on Lou Reed’s 1972 comeback album Transformer, Joan and co strip away the Bowie-produced glam of the original, injecting a punky energy that razors off half a minute from the original.

There’s a real Bleach-era Nirvana feel to the grungey hardcore of Narrow Head’s ‘Love Sick’, with its lurching bass, though its nihilistic lyrics could have come from Henry Rollins’ Black Flag tour diaries. Gel seem to, well, gel, on ‘Mirage’ in a way they haven’t before as their hardcore gains a touch more distance from their powerviolence origins.

Elsewhere there’s more hardcore from Life’s Question, whose ‘Brass Coffin’ somehow keeps it all together, despite veering all over the road as it variously channels Cancer Bats, launches into punishing breakdowns and even threatens to go anthemic. There’s also metallic hardcore from London newcomers Tether’s ‘Straight With Me’, who sound like they’ve come on in leaps and bounds since I saw them live last summer.

The UK DIY punk scene makes a few appearances this month. Haest’s doomy ‘Listen To This Smell’ continues both their absurdist tradition of song titles (adding to ‘It’s Only Poison If You Die’ and ‘Jellyfish Are Just Wet Ghosts’) and their deadly serious musical attack. And punk individualists Wonk Unit continue to hew their own path on ‘The Thickest Skin’, whose tale of hard-won survival is propelled by its melodic pop-punk.

There’s also some very British sounds from Marcel Wave on ‘Barrow Boys’, a Talking Heads influenced post-punk critique of gentrification, as well as from Punkband, whose ‘Born Broke Break Croak’ ramps up Bob Vylan levels of anger.

Approaching their 30th anniversary as a band, Germany’s Beatsteaks have acquired a melodic sensibly somewhere between Hot Water Music and Rise Against, while losing none of their bite – as the first line of ‘Detractors’ (“Fuck the detractors”) makes clear.

Some of the other highlights in this month’s playlist include The Decemberists’ spare and direct love song ‘All I Want Is You’, a song that cuts me to the quick. Bringing another, more danceable side of indie pop to the mix are Belle and Sebastian on ‘What Happened to You, Son?’, a song that was apparently scrapped at the last minute from their 2023 album Late Developers.

So, cue up the playlist for all that plus the detective-takes-one-last-case lyrical concept of Sløtface’s ‘Tired Old Dog’, which is as well written as the melodic indie punk it’s wrapped up in, and a similarly pleasing storytelling arc from ‘Merch Girl’ by Fresh.

Playlist image and main image by Wexor Tmg on Unsplash