Fighting with the Undertow #7

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

July's instalment includes The Offspring, Fontaines DC, M83, The Stooges, Speed 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 around 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.

Sometimes these playlists lean more to alt rock or indie music, but this one feels like it’s firmly in the punk rock camp.

First up is 'Make It All Right', the first single from The Offspring's 11th album Supercharged. Now, I don't hold with the notion of guilty pleasures - if you like it, own it, but The Offspring come close pretty close these days. Despite hiring a Canadian voiceover artist to mimic Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale on this track, not to mention a stage show that teetered on the edge of self-parody when I saw them at Wembley Arena in 2021 - not to mention the often reactionary bent to their lyrics, the band still win you over with big hooks and choruses that don't 'woah on the woahs'.

Nevertheless, Speed following on from The Offspring come on like a palette cleanser. And what's not to like about lyrics like "The first test? Say 'fuck the rest'", a breakdown where the Australian hardcore band wander all over the place (flutes?!?) and a song that doesn't overstay its welcome. ‘The First Test’ must also be one of the more aggressive songs with the line "Life is beautiful'.

The UK’s High Vis are back with the first taste of their third album, turning back to their hardcore roots on 'Mob DLA', giving me another chance to kick myself for missing them live last year. Meanwhile, Out Of Love - another UK band - come on like a pop-infused Fidlar on 'World Peace', as they kick back against the world.

Ska for me is usually from Jamaica and Sunday morning music when I’ll cooking breakfast for the family (slowly and with plenty of coffee), but I do like to dip into punk’s take on the genre. Corrupt Vision have a playlist on Spotify called Violent Ska and that's perhaps better than any description I'd come up for them. The Orange County, California band are not novelty, pop or your parents' ska, instead pursuing a sound as sharp as a steel rat trap on ‘Endless Eights’ as they peddle ‘crack rock steady’.

This month’s punk sounds also feature skate punk on 'Kick Flip' by Gang!, doubling down on their credentials with a cameo from Tony Hawk declaring them the worst band of all time. There’s a street punk take of early 80s American hardcore, specifically parts of 'M.I.C.' by Hüsker Dü, on ‘Planet Hell’ by UK hardcore punks Stiff Meds. And Minneapolis’ Scrunchies bring Witching Waves style indie punk that probably/could come out on Bristol’s Specialist Subject Records label.

I'd bracketed Ireland's Fontaines DC alongside Idles, Shame and other 'sprechgesang' post-punks who do nothing for me, but their appearance during the BBC's Glastonbury coverage persuaded me to think again. 'Favourite' does veer quite close to Scottish pop-rock act Deacon Blue, but surprisingly is none the worse for it. 

Then it’s time for some alt rock/indie. 'Davey Says' brings warm early 90s feels and an immediacy that's unfortunately lacking from the rest of King Hannah's album. In that way they remind me of Mazzy Star, so if this is their 'Fade Into You' then that's good enough for me. It's certainly the song I've listened to the most in the last month.

School Drugs' energising 'With Sympathy' dismisses platitudes and isn't the last time chorus pedals will feature in this month's playlist. Cue, some shoegaze from Horse Jumper of Love, who could be playing an instore at Banquet Records up the road from me in Kingston next month. 'Snow Angel' is a delicate take on My Bloody Valentine with an acoustic heart nestling within its pedal board.

Bass Drum of Death! I'd forgotten all about them until they popped up in my feeds this month and took me back to the 00s/10s of No Age and Japandroids. Their Live… and Let Die live album, recorded last year in Chicago, suggests I should have been paying more attention to the Mississippi low-fi garage rock duo.

There’s plenty more in the playlist for you to dig into, so I’ll just mention one more track - 'Rips of Rain' by Coughin' Vicars, who have a harder take on 80s post-punk, putting them in the company of bands like Home Front. Glacial keyboards and Killing Joke might be some of the watch words here. The Liverpool band's bio says members of Coughin’ Vicars have appeared in bands such as Napalm Death over the years, but you wouldn't guess that on this song.

Playlist image and main image by David Clode on Unsplash